Thames (NZ): Have you read "The Thames Journals of Vicesimus Lush"?

There is one standout book that is a must read for anyone wanting to know more about life on the Thames Goldfield - The Thames Journals of Vicesimus Lush.

The book was the project of Alison Drummond, who took snippets from Reverend Lush's extensive Diary/Diaries, and turned them into three books. One looks at the Lush family in Thames, the other two cover life in the Waikato and Auckland areas.

The reason for this is post is to alert readers that the Thames Journal can be downloaded or read on-line - thanks to the University of Auckland's early Book Collection.

Source: The Thames Journals of Vicesimus Lush 1868-82, Edited by Alison Drummond

You can also take a scholarly look at Rev Lush's journal through the Master of Arts in History thesis by Gillian Nelson. Completed in 2012 and entitled:

‘In Quietness and in Confidence Shall Be Your Strength’: 

Vicesimus Lush and His Journals, 1850-1882

Part of the abstract reads: 

"From his arrival in New Zealand in 1850 until his death in 1882 Reverend Vicesimus Lush kept a regular journal to send to family back “home” in England. These journals chronicle the life of an ordinary priest and settler in the Auckland region, his work, relationships and observations. This thesis examines the journals as texts: their role in correspondence and maintaining connections with family. Using Lush’s record of day-to-day experiences, the thesis deals with his emotional attachment towards various expressions of “home” (immediate and extended family, houses, relationship with English land and customs) and explores his associated sense of belonging."

Rev Lush, was an important figure in the development of Thames and instrumental in the construction of two beautiful landmarks that remain - the St George's Church and the 'The Club' (the old Lush residence).

 

Rev V Lush's Residence, corner Mackay and Mary Streets, Thames

ABOVE: c1875 (left) and 2015 (right)

Thames (NZ): New Lions Club Heritage sign at the old Courthouse in Queen Street

The Thames Lions Club continue on their major project of upgrading the 'yellow signs' around the town. An enormous task, but a welcome addition - as the new yellow signs also feature a photoboard with more information about the historic item or place. The new sign for the "Old Courthouse" is on the right.

The first Courthouse had been in Grey Street, in the thriving town of Shortland. Then in 1870 the new Government buildings were opened in Grahamstown, in Queen Street, just south of the Albert Street intersect.

The grand building contained the Courthouse, Police Station, and Post & Telegraph Offices. These were busy departments during the Goldfield days. The land was originally leased from property developer Robert Graham. Construction of the building began in 1869, and it opened 1870 at a cost of £3941. Structural alterations were made over the decades, including the Police Station moving north to a purpose built building in 1909.

Just part of the old courthouse remains to this day, along with the later brick Police Station. The current Police Station and Courthouse are located further south, on Queen Street. 
The new snippets on the latest board can be found from various postings on this blog over the past years.

 

The top photograph of the people outside the Post Office that was part of the Government building complex, featured in a post in 2015. (enlargement below)

The lower photograph showed the Thames Post and Telegraph staff outside the building in 1903. This photograph featured in a blog on "Messenger Boys" in September 2016.

Thames (NZ): The opening of the Goldfields Shopping Centre 1990

A recent postcard purchase celebrates the opening of the Thames Goldfields Shopping Centre back on Wednesday 7 November 1990. The shopping centre cost $25 million dollars and initially had room for 40 retail shops. It was part of a Foodstuff's project that had seen the opening of the Pak 'N Save supermarket the previous year. The reclaimed land on which the mall was built had been purchased from Thames developer Mr Graham Harris. (Thames Star 6 November 1990)

A selection of early shops were: Stevens Gifts, Warnocks, Modern Bags, Robert Harris Restaurant (top floor), Rei Hamon Gallery, Payless Plastics, Tandy’s Music, Rodney Wayne Hair Salon and many more.

The Warehouse and McDonald's were later additions to the complex and extensive remodeling was needed to accommodate them. The present store directory has not been updated for some time.

ABOVE: Views of the new Goldfields Shopping Centre in November 1990.

Photographer: Chris Smith

When people remember those early days of the shopping centre, they usually mention the following:

• Robert Harris Coffee Lounge and the ride up to it on the escalator.
• How many falls there were on the escalator!
• The waterwheel that was in the foyer.
• The great Friday night roasts!
• The great music shop!
• Meeting for morning or afternoon tea at the mall.
• The picture theatre at the mall!
• And yes those slippery tiles, were always a nightmare.

Many stores have come and gone, while present management appear to continue to try and attract tenants for the empty shops. Initially shopkeepers in Pollen Street feared the mall could lead to their demise, but this has not been the case. It appears it has been many of the Mall's shops that have been the ones that have struggled and gone out of business.

Good or bad, the Goldfields Shopping Centre still operates to this day.

ABOVE: The Goldfields Shopping Centre Carpark from the intersection of Queen and Mary Streets.

Thames (NZ): Celebration of Marriage 1867-2017 at St James Church

If you are around Thames this week, pop in to the St James Church at the corner of Pollen and Pahau Streets. The church is celebrating 150 years of marriage in the town with an assortment of photographs, clothes and other memorabilia. Entrance is free, while a gold coin donation appreciated.

The church is open from 10am to 2pm each day 18-25 November. Its also a great time to go inside and be in awe of this beautiful church that was built in 1897 at a cost of two thousand pounds.

 

The model of the old Wesleyan church is also on display. One of the miniature building models constructed by Mr Ted Egan of Thames. (Further buildings on display at the Thames Museum)

This is the church that moved! Originally at the corner of Cochrane and Brown Street, the Church was then moved to the corner of Mary and Pollen Streets. After many decades it was again moved to the corner of Sealey and Mackay Street. Then the building was deconstructed and moved to be a wedding venue at Gails of Tamahere.

For the St James Church, it is the third church building, that the Presbyterian parish built. The first at Rolleston Street, the second on the same site, but that was turned and moved to the east of the present church.

In 1971 the Presbyterian and Methodist groups in Thames formed a joint parish council, which then led in 1973 to the parishes forming a union parish – the Thames Union Parish. “The formal service of uniting took place in St James on Sunday, 25th November 1973.”

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[1] St James Church Thames Centennial 1898 1998 Booklet, Barry Brokenshire. 1998.

Thames (NZ): WWI November 1917 ROH

One hundred years ago, World War One was dragging on, with casualties and deaths being reported each month. In November 1917, Thames lost six more young men. 

Lest we Forget

15/11/1917 In the Field, Palestine; LOWE Louis Henry; 12679; Trooper AMR

20/11/1917 In the Field, Belgium; THORN Ben; 23/301; Private NZMC No 1 NZ Field Ambulance

24/11/1917 In the Field, Belgium; DEMPSEY Earnest Henry; 38358; L/Cpl  3rd Batt WIR 17th Coy

24/11/1917 In the Field, Belgium; MAXWELL Alexander Harold; 13604; Private 2nd Batt OIR

25/11/1917 In the Field, Palestine; SIMPSON James Thomas; 11/1596; Tpr NZMR Brig Machine Gun

25/11/1917 In the Field, France or Belgium; WHITEHOUSE Charles Philip; 21129; Cpl 4th Batt NZRB The full Thames WWI Roll of Honour names are listed HERE. Today, 15 November 2017 a commemorative cross stands in the Thames 'Field of Remembrance' for Trooper Louis Lowe of Thames. Trooper Lowe received gunshot wounds to the legs 14 November 1917 and two days later Died of Wounds at Palestine. (one hundred years ago) Louis' father Henry Lowe was Mayor of Thames until 1919. (Lowe Avenue at Parawai is named after Henry for his years of service to the town) As a child Louis Lowe had attended Kauaeranga Boy's School, then Thames High School and the Thames School of Mines. On leaving school he worked in his father's butcher shop. He enlisted in January 1916, aged 23 years of age.

Thames (NZ): Steam Returns to Thames thanks to HPA

Apart from the activities of Steampunk, at the northern end of town another momentous event took place at the Hauraki Prospectors Association 'Goldmine' site. A renovated steam engine was started to run the stamper battery. The HPA are a unique group who just quietly get on with business and make the impossible happen! We all should be very proud of the years of dedication put in by this group, to keep the mining history alive in the town.
The following is a press release and photographs from the Hauraki Prospectors Association.

Steam returns to Thames

"A whistle blew, and steam billowed around Hauraki Prospectors Association volunteers yesterday for their first fire-up of a renovated stationary steam engine. It is among very few such operating engines in the country and the only one set-up to run a stamper battery.

The “dream of steam” goes back some 50 years and has driven members to collect old engine parts and boilers over the decades, with major components for seven stationary steam engines now on site, although the condition of these varies greatly. Murray Stent of Orongo, Hauraki Plains, who has worked such engines since obtaining a first-class steam qualification in 1956, refurbished the best steam engine to pristine condition in the 1970s and 1980s, with the intention of one day connecting to a steam boiler.

The vision has been revised recently with increasing success of Steampunk The Thames, the annual Thames Steampunk Festival, and the growing number of overseas tourists with a passionate interest in steam visiting the association’s Goldmine-Experience site.

In June this year, the Thames Community Board provided $20,000 in a local economic development grant towards the project, which has been used for parts to set up a steam boiler in operating condition (ex-Adams clothing factory in Thames) to connect to the engine. This required an official survey and certification, lagged piping to connect it to the steam engine plus steam-pipes, bearings, counter-shafts, valves and other fittings.

The steam engine started yesterday originally drove a sawmill in the King Country area of Taringamotu and was saved from scrap-yards by Driving Creek Railway founder Barry Brickell, a supporter of the Thames group. About 30 years ago, members visited a similar engine that an Albert Baker discovered in an abandoned battery at the top of Rangihau Road, Coroglen. It was used to drive a five-stamp stamper battery, leading the Thames group to believe it could replicate this. Calculations also supported the belief.

ABOVE: Murray Stent (left) and Eric Mountford with the new steam engine in Thames.

It is thought there are only a handful of operating stationary steam engines in New Zealand today. Since 1995, the British-based International Stationary Steam Engine Society has tried to estimate the number of steam engines of all kinds in New Zealand and by 2013 recorded there were some 300 traction engines, portable steam engines, road rollers, steam wagons plus 16 operating steam railways.

However, in comparison to these “mobile engines”, stationary steam engines were rare, with the main collection (35) on display at the Tokomaru Steam Engine Museum in the lower North Island. One was set up to run and could provide power for the site. The British society found another operating steam engine at the Kauri Milling and Transport Museum at Kerikeri running a recreated sawmill.  At Gore one that had been using for animal-feed milling was in good working condition, oiled and tuned monthly but not generally available for public viewing.

Since these studies, the Kerikeri steam sawmill has shut down and the Tokomaru Steam Engine Museum has been closed to the public also, except for group visits by arrangement, and the site is up for sale.

According to Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand http://teara.govt.nz/en/farm-mechanisation/page-3 portable steam engines were imported for farming in the 1860s and in a census in 1919 New Zealand had 728 stationary engines used for agriculture (eg threshing mills and winnowing machines). Hundreds of other such engines were used in flax mills, sawmills and mines, including some on the Coromandel Peninsula and Hauraki Plains but actual numbers are unknown.

The histories of a few of the engine components at the Goldmine-Experience site are known and as well as restoring at least two engines volunteers hope to record as much as they can of the histories of all of them. One engine comes from Roberts’ Mine, which was up Waiotahi Creek, and it has been converted quite ingeniously by former engineers into an air compressor. This is “second-on-the-list” for in the group’s steam restoration plan.

ABOVE: Murray Stent with refurbished steam boiler.

Another is an A&G Price “winding engine” dated 1877. It is thought the engine/winch was used to raise mine cages on a mine shaft in the Thames goldfield and was then taken back to Prices to assemble the boilers for the May Queen Pump house. When at the foundry it was positioned to the side of the tower structure (winding head frame) that remains there today. Ropes from the winch drum of the engine passed over pulleys at the top of the tower to lift boiler plate through a press in which the seams were riveted. The engine was removed from Prices to the Goldmine-Experience site in the 1970s.

Mr Stent, 81, who has run the steam refurbishment project this year in conjunction with the association’s chief engineer Nelson Valiant, operated steam engines throughout the district last century, starting off at a casein factory at Turua, then in various sawmills and running a large marine-type engine at Paerata that drove NZ Dairy’s butter churns."

For further information Contact: Paul Bensemann, HPA, 021 2142665
Special thanks to the Hauraki Prospectors Association for permission to publish story & photographs

ABOVE: Murray Stent operating the steam engine.

BELOW: Murray Stent starting up the steam engine.

 

 For further information on the Hauraki Prospectors Association and visiting details go to

http://www.goldmine-experience.co.nz/admission.html 

Related Information on HPA:

Opening of the Stamper Battery 6 August 2017

Thames (NZ): New 'Sun Dial' Direction Finder at the Peace Memorial

Awhile back we wrote about the sun dial that once stood proudly in front of the WWI Peace Memorial on the Waiotahi Spur - accessed via Waiotahi Creek Road - Monument Road.

1972 View of the Sun Dial/Direction Finder at the WWI Peace Memorial

https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=24805249&digital=yes

Due to vandalism, the 'object' was removed a few years back and the base has been standing incomplete for sometime. There was talk at last years Armistice Day, that a replacement top plaque may be imminent.

2016 view of the base where once the Sun Dial stood.

 Well, this Armistice Day (2017), a new dial is in place, and looks magnificent. I would say more correctly these days we would have to label it a 'Direction finder'. While the photograph was being taken, there were several family groups at the memorial and all were fascinated with the direction finder. Interesting to hear everyone checking locations and distances and other facts that are recorded on the 'plaque'.

 

Special thanks to everyone who was involved in getting this project from planning to completion :)

Thames (NZ): Armistice Day, Steam Punk and much more

Well the town continues to rock, and with the influx of 'Victorian Dressed' people of all ages, you could easily imagine you had stepped back in time.

There was however one sad moment today...the Armistice Commemorations had been moved to the WWI Peace Memorial because of the Steam Punk activities. Which was fine in theory, but tinged with sadness when not even the usual 11am sounding of the town's fire siren took place...a small reminder to the town that yes it was indeed ARMISTICE DAY!

This was the 99th year since Armistice Day, next year will commemorate the 100th year since the ending of World War One in 1918. "Armistice Day acknowledges the World War I ceasefire at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 that ended four years of fighting." (NZ Herald)

 ABOVE: Thames War Memorial Civic Centre

BELOW: The WWI Peace Memorial on the Waiotahi Spur

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Now to the other event in the town. the following are photographs of the Steam Punk Parade.