Inspired by Perry Rice’s N8N article on the origins of Hamilton’s libraries, local historian Alan Sharp looks into the earliest days of libraries around the region. He uncovers a history that includes local rivalries, bureaucratic bungling, a fire, and more than a touch of scandal. WHILE ON HOLIDAY I received a request for information

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Mike Taylor has responded to N8N’s call for local historic photos and come up with this great pic of two lads out and about in Gordonton.  Love the metal road! THIS PHOTOGRAPH was taken on Whitikahu Road, near Gordonton, in 1938. My father Alan, left, in his MG and his older brother Mac in the

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Woodlands first-ever Pioneer Fundays was a real blast from the past in the present. There were donkey rides, vintage vehicles to admire, old style games to play and gnomes to find on the garden trail. It’s estimated around 2000 people attended the days, from Tuesday to thursday.  Looking forward to the next one already!  

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Gordonton’s history was well and truly on the agenda at last month’s Gordonton District Committee meeting and a call has been made for input from everyone in the community. “We identified that we need to preserve our history in a pro-active manner, and use this to bring our community together, and keep our identity,” said

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“I grew up in Gordonton on the family farm so was loosely aware that there was a clan of Riddells who did the same. As a young boy, I was taught in the primers by Peggy Riddell in one of those small ubiquitous prefabs of the time. It’s no longer extant. And this is where

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Clarice Hoban (nee Riddell)  still remembers the names of the draft horses who pulled the milk wagon – Jock and Bonny. “They were lovely,” says the 86-year-old, former student of Gordonton Primary, which celebrates its 125th anniversary over Labour weekend. Clarice, the youngest in the family of William and Mary Riddell, lived in the old

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