$ FREE ADMISSION

Opening Hours: Mon – Fri 10am – 4 pm, Weekends and Public Holidays 10am – 2pm.

Opening Hours: Mon – Fri 10am – 4 pm, Weekends and Public Holidays 10am – 2pm.

$ FREE ADMISSION   24 Victoria St, Cambridge , NZ | CONTACT

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Old Cambridge

(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…

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Plunket

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…

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Post Masters

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,…

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Police Station

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…

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Cambridge Primary School

The Ten Star Redoubt (behind the present Museum) was home for the first school in Cambridge. In January 1865 the militiamen were allotted farms from confiscated land around the Cambridge district. Wives and children arrived…

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Pukekura Dairy Factory

‘Times were hard in 1880s. Beef, mutton and dairy produce all alike were difficult to dispose of at anything like remunerative prices. But there came to farm near Hamilton a Mr [David] Gemmell from California…

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Cambridge Railway & Kissing Gates

The Cambridge branch of the railway starts near Ruakura, and it was here that the first sod was ceremoniously turned on 6 May 1882. Good progress was made on the section between Ruakura and Matangi.…

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Rail Journey 1884

Excerpt from The Waikato Times 9 October 1884 ‘The Cambridge railway passes through one of the most forward and prosperous settlements in the North Island. Though the land in the immediate vicinity of the line…

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River Travel

The Invasion of the Waikato 1864. Excerpt from ‘Such Things Were’ by C W Vennell (1939) “Tamehana’s stronghold at Te Tiki o te Ihingarangi [Pukekura] was definitely threatened, and his watchers renewed their vigilance. On…

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Returned Services Association

The New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association was formed in 1916. Cambridge returned soldiers rallied each Anzac Day and attempted to form an Association. In 1920 the Government declared 25th April in each year, the anniversary…

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