The historic Wimbledon Tavern has been a part of the tiny community since the 19th century.
It was the quote that left a tiny community floored and a nation scratching its head.
The owner of Wimbledon’s historic tavern Eric Gathercole has shut his doors on the community, and said this as he turned the lock:
“There is no empathy that exists in the district - all that exists is evil.”
Really? Seriously? Hawke’s Bay Today editor Chris Hyde spoke to people in and around the Tararua village to figure out where that level of animosity came from.
Wimbledon, London, is known as a place of serves and volleys.
Wimbledon, Tararua, not so much.
The sleepy village of dozens rather than hundreds is a place framed by its winding hill country, sheep paddocks, war memorial, forestry, the Wainui River, and its historic tavern sitting right on Route 52, a road of Kiwi backcountry driving dreams.
When Eric Gathercole moved to the town from Auckland in 2018, he had hopes of reviving the tavern, built in 1896, into a thriving business.
For a while, it worked.
But locals spoken to, some of them anonymously, say Gathercole’s behaviour rubbed people the wrong way long before he told a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter this week he believed the community was “evil” and had “turned against” him.
They insist they want and need to share a different perspective, because the community they live in feels supportive and nurturing and warm.
To suggest anything else was, well, a shock.
Trudy Riddell, who lives down the road from Wimbledon, says she has nothing against Gathercole. She doesn’t drink, so didn’t go to his pub.
But she said Gathercole’s style of hospitality was one in which he felt entitled to the community’s loyalty simply because he was open.
“He’s a very vocal guy and he’s very negative,” she claimed.
“To call us evil? It’s vile and it’s not true and I hate the fact it’s gone around the country.”
Riddell said if Gathercole was “just a bit more welcoming” then the community probably would have supported him more.
“It doesn’t matter what part of New Zealand you’re opening a business in; no one is entitled to anything, no one owes you anything.”
Riddell says Gathercole has now “shot himself in the foot”.
“If you’re in a small community like we are, you need to try not to get offside with anyone, and sometimes that means you shouldn’t say what’s on your mind.
“It sounds clan-ish, but it’s not, it’s just the reality of any small community.”
There has been friction towards Gathercole since a decision in late 2023 to host a gathering of a Dannevirke chapter of the Mongrel Mob at the tavern.
Riddell says she felt intimidated at the time by the gang’s presence in the community and offended that Gathercole then “blamed” locals for his decision to invite them by publicly stating that he’d done it because he wasn’t making enough money from them.
He’s also publicly petitioned to prevent truckies waking him at 3am with their movements outside the tavern, though he says that led to constructive discussions and resolved the issue.
However, the friction appears to have ramped up when a group of local families decided to band money together to refurbish and bring back to life the Herbertville Inn.
The inn, which reopened in April, is just 9km or 8 minutes from Wimbledon, and Gathercole is blunt in saying its recent success has ruined him.
Herbertville Inn publican John Sedcole declined to comment for this story, but locals spoken to by Hawke’s Bay Today say it is doing well and is now the place to be on the weekend.
Gathercole can’t quite fathom the decision to restart it. He says it felt like an attempt to “take me out”.
“Why did they need another pub when there are only 70 people out here?” he told Hawke’s Bay Today.
“All I had asked for was a bit of respect, and this is what I got in return.”
Gathercole plans to continue living in the Wimbledon Tavern, a Category 2 historic building.
He says he plans to open it only to large outside groups who give him enough notice that they’re coming — groups like car clubs that often take road trips down Route 52.
Riddell says it’s a tough time for hospitality everywhere in New Zealand and the Wimbledon Tavern isn’t the only country or city pub feeling it.
Life in Wimbledon and other rural communities has also changed markedly over the years, with fewer people drinking alcohol.
The pub is no longer the community’s focal point, she says.
“We’re a great little community, but I think it’s fair to say the heart of it now is in its schools rather than its pubs.
“That’s just the reality because of drink driving and the awareness of that.
“We’re still an incredible community. Our hall fundraisers are massive, and everyone turns out to support each other.
“We’re the kind of place that gives visitors petrol for free when they run out on the side of the road.
“I’m just really disappointed about the comments that have been made about us - it’s just so uncalled for.”
Another leaping to Wimbledon’s defence is Miriam Tio Lenzen.
She lives a bit further down the road than Riddell, closer to Weber, but feels she can shed some light on what the community is like.
Like Gathercole, she’s a relatively recent addition, moving from Auckland via Bay of Plenty two and a half years ago, and she’s also started a small business, in her case landscaping.
“I just don’t have that experience at all,” she says of Gathercole’s suggestion the community lacks empathy.
“I have been invited into people’s homes from day one, given eggs and hay and all sorts of other stuff all the time.”
For Tio Lenzen, the community has been everything she expected.
“That was what we were searching for when we moved, the New Zealand we remember 30 years ago, and we’ve got it.”
So, how does this get resolved? A pub effectively locking out the locals leaves the community in an odd situation.
Hawke’s Bay Today asked Gathercole what it would take to fix things.
He said this is what he believes:
“The majority of the community is lacking empathy, I stand by that, and what is the opposite of empathy?
“So, if you ask me how to resolve the situation, I really don’t know now.
“Buy me out, I guess.”
Chris Hyde is the editor of Hawke’s Bay Today. He has more than a decade of experience in news reporting in regional New Zealand newsrooms.