Collections
Coaching Days
William Kennedy Carter had his stables on the block of land now occupied by Briscoes, bordered by Lake, Kirkwood and Brewery (Empire) Streets and the National Hotel. He came from Halifax, Canada and started his…
Read MoreDepression Days in the 1930s
Imagine you are back in the 1930’s depression. Your family is struggling on a farm on Buckland Road. Many neighbours are just walking off their farms. Aunty Ethel in Australia leaves you some money in…
Read MoreFirst Cambridge Borough Council
The Cambridge Borough Council came fighting and yelling into the world at their first meeting on 7 September 1886 – twenty two years after Cambridge was founded. (The first local body was the Cambridge North Highway…
Read MoreLeamington School
The school was opened 12 October 1880 with 46 pupils and Mr H Hyatt teacher. He was remembered 50 years later by Tom Hicks as … a unique teacher who did his best to set…
Read MoreLeamington Cemetery Monument
The following is inscribed on a Monument at the Leamington Cemetery. Maori War This memorial marks the last resting place of eleven men of the Colonial Forces who died during the Maori War, and whose…
Read MoreLooking for a Death in NZ
In the Cambridge Cemetery there are already thousands of potted family histories, a garden and an art gallery of headstones and statues. But the unmarked gaps between the headstones are the most tantalizing. The 3rd…
Read MoreMaungakawa
Maori history tells of a chief, Koroki from whom has descended the Ngatihaua tribe which subsequently occupied the Maungakawa hills and fought under Te Waharoa. Following a defeat of the Ngatihaua by the Arawa Tribe,…
Read MoreMotoring in Cambridge
The first motor car in Cambridge arrived in 1905 and was owned by Mr James Sinclair of the Masonic Hotel. It was a White Steam Car, and took an hour to raise sufficient steam to…
Read MoreMystery Creek
By Bernard Johnson © ‘Mystery Creek’ is clearly a place with an intriguing past, and fortunately a classic local history source gives us the background to the name. In ‘Plough of the Pakeha’ (1975) Eric…
Read MoreThe National Hotel
The National Hotel has always been a Landmark in Cambridge. In 1866 in the infant town of Cambridge, the Alpha (now National) was erected for Mr Robert Kirkwood – his name is perpetuated in a…
Read More