The annual Crockery Bob’s sale took place at the Patearoa Hall.
The sale, which has been going for about 25 years, sells all sorts of goods donated by the wider Patearoa community.
One of the organisers, Fiona Parker, said it was one of the biggest crowds at the sale for some years. People spent plenty of time hunting and some made multiple trips, filling the car and then making a return trip or two. There was a bit of everything to be bought and there was also a dedicated children’s corner.
More than $2500 was raised to go towards projects in the Patearoa area.
The name of the sale goes back to Bob McSkimming, who had the first store in the Patearoa area in the 1880s. The area was being mined for gold at this time and Mr McSkimming would go out to the goldfields in his horse-drawn cart to sell goods to the miners.
The miners said they would hear him before they could see him because of the noise his goods made rattling on the cart, so he was nicknamed Crockery Bob.
