Collection Stories

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…

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…

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…

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…

(By K L Wilkinson, From ‘The News and Theatre Courier’ 12 August 1936) ‘Cambridge, my birth-place, still my home-town. This Jubilee time [Cambridge Borough Council 50 years Jubilee] naturally sets free a flood of reminiscences…

As reported in the Waikato Independent on 28 September 1917, ‘A large number of ladies (and several babies) assembled in the Council Chambers for the purpose of forming a sub-branch of the Hamilton centre of…

When the 3rd Waikato Militia arrived in 1864 the Cambridge Post Office was one of 89 new offices established in the colony. The first Post Master – John Henry Wilkinson – was born in Middlewick,…

On 11 April 1882 the Waikato Times reported :- “The Government is contemplating the erection of a suitable Police Station at Cambridge. As there is no place at present for the convenience of the local…