Y8’s visit the Ellesmere Heritage Park

Even though it was a cold and sometimes wet day the students seemed to really enjoy themselves. The year group were split into two groups and one half visited the Ford in the morning and the Heritage Park in the afternoon (the other group did the opposite).

At the Heritage Park the groups were further split into three groups and rotated around three areas of learning. These were the Old Cottage and Jail, the Old Equipment and Preserving the Past.

At the Old Cottage and Jail the groups were regaled with stories of the past. They heard about the history of the old Jail and how one of the legends around it was that it was thought that James McKenzie – the central Otago rustler was kept overnight in the Jail. The students were also amazed that there were no facilities and more than one wondered how you could sleep in the same room as your Number Two’s sitting in the potty underneath the bed. They were further amazed (and some horrified) at the prospect of having to use a long drop and one person was overheard asking what ply toilet paper they would have used and looking in pure astonishment at the square pieces of telephone book paper sitting beside the seat. Another student asked how it was flushed, which again lead to looks of horror and astonishment as they were told that it all remained in the ground until full and then a new hole was dug. From the long drop we went and looked at the old wash house and the mangles and fire heated washers. A lot of students wanted to wind the handle and thought it would be easy to do by hand, until they heard a wash could last up to 3-4hours!!!

Entering the Cottage the students were asked to compare the cottage to their places of residence today. They noted a lack of power points, household utensils and storage. There were absolute looks of horror when it was explained that they would have had to bathe only once per week, AND use the same water as their brothers and sisters. Some of the girls were a bit indignant over the fact they would have had to follow their fathers and brothers and were horrified once again when they learnt the meaning behind the expression “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” but the best was to come. When they figured out that there were 7 children living out of 1 bedroom and only two beds which meant beds (and potty’s) needed to be shared a chorus of “No Way’s”, “Uh uh” and “I’d rather sleep on the floor than share with my sister” – at this point the appreciation for what they had today was palpable.

In the equipment sheds the students were intrigued by lots of things that they ‘sort of’ recognised as being stuff that they had seen on the farm but not that old. Of special interest was the Night Cart. This cart used by Messer’s Whees and Poohs, held the students in morbid fascination as they struggled to understand that peoples ablutions had to be carted away and could not be just flushed away. One young lady looked quite puzzled and when asked if she had a question, she quite innocently asked “But if you went to the toilet and it hadn’t been picked up, wouldn’t it smell bad”. The Leeston/Southbridge rivalry raised its head when the students found out the cart dumped its load in Southbridge and a few ribald statements had to be squashed.

The next highlight for the students was heading into the shed and getting a talk from the Historical Society (the fact that it was freezing outside and the Historical society’s room was the warmest place on site had nothing to do with students interest). The students enjoyed learning about the importance of old photos and documents and loved poring over old school photos to find parents, aunts, uncles and even a few grands in the collection. From the Historical Society they were taken out and shown a remade butchers store complete with tools, hooks, and sawdust on the floor. It took a few guesses but they eventually figured out that the sawdust was used to soak up ‘stuff’. The sharpening wheel held their interest and the demonstration of how they tested the sharpness of their knives caused a few winces.

They then moved down into the printing area and were given a demonstration of how newspapers and magazines used to be put together. Learning what a ‘Compositor’ did piqued their interest and one student even pointed out that everything seemed to be done in reverse which made putting together a word even harder.

Overall the trip was a great success, with some of the students stating that this was way better than Ferrymead and a lot closer. More than one said they wanted to come back and explore a bit more and asked if we could come back and look at some of the other stuff. The College would like to thank Ray Maginness and Stu Brannigan (from the Heritage Park Volunteers and Historical Society respectively) and their teams of helpers, for giving up their time, energy and wonderful knowledge and passing onto our students their passionate love of the history of our area. We would encourage anyone to take up the chance when offered to go and visit the Park and hear and see some of the wonderful ways our past is being preserved.