Preserving local history one building at a time

Taieri Historical Society committee member Pete Thomson cleans the windows of the former Outram Primary School, which he attended as a child more than 60 years ago. PHOTOS: SIMON HENDERSON

Putting a shine on history recently were members of the Taieri Historical Society.

Committee members were washing windows, dusting shelves and polishing railings at the Taieri Historical Museum and Park.

President Neil Gamble said the first building to arrive on the site was the former Outram courthouse in the early 1970s.

"And then they found the jail, which was in somebody’s garden — that came up next," Mr Gamble said.

A flurry of activity 25 years ago saw a number of buildings arrive at the site, some even turning up on the same day.

In 1997 the Outram School infant room was cut in half horizontally to enable it to be transported to the park, where it was then reassembled.

The same year also saw Berwick Presbyterian Church moved to the park, where it was now often used for weddings, as well as an annual service.

A shed that housed the steam engine used for the Mosgiel to Outram railway line before the line was closed in 1953 was in danger of being burned down for a fire brigade test exercise.

Luckily a member of the public alerted the historical society.

Neil Gamble inspects the "Courier", a radio first manufactured by J. Wiseman & Sons, of Auckland, in about 1927.

The council agreed that the society could have the shed, but gave them only three weeks to take it away.

That led to both the former railway shed and the church coming to the site on the same day, Mr Gamble said.

As well as historic buildings, all sorts of items had found their way to the museum over the years, from cut glass to old radios, photographs, uniforms, domestic appliances and much more.

A recent addition was a memorial seat donated by the family of Allan and Alice Bathgate, of Outram.

Future plans included repainting the exterior of the courthouse, caretaker’s house and the south wall of the church, which the society estimated would cost about $45,000.

Another project would be the replacement of wooden boards on the exterior of the schoolhouse, but with an estimated half-million cost, it would take a long time to complete.

The society were looking for more volunteers to help with the park, which opens to the public on Sunday afternoons from October to May each year.

"We would love to have them on board.

"We only operate on a committee of about six," Mr Gamble said.