Childhood memories of Kowhai Park recalled

Warm childhood memories flooded back for former Feilding resident, Ruth Dodge, when she heard the Manawatu District Council’s call for stories and photographs about the town’s historic Kowhai Park.

Mrs Dodge (nee Eade), who now lives in Dunedin, responded with a photograph taken in the mid-1930s showing her by the-then fenced-off pond in the park’s south-eastern corner.

“I can remember feeding the ducks,” she said, “and still look forward to visiting Kowhai Park when we come up to Feilding on holiday.”

Mrs Dodge, whose family once ran a furniture shop in Manchester Street, was recently in the park for a picnic.

“I took my recorder down and played it and the birds in the aviary were responding to the music. It was quite strange.”

Mrs Dodge said the park looked “lovely” and she particularly liked the camellia walk, where she had once planted a bush in memory of her parents.

Pahiatua resident, Creina Draper (nee McGregor), said Kowhai Park had always been a popular venue for wedding parties and she sent her and her sister, Heather’s, bridal photographs from the early 1950s.

“As small children our mother used to take us to Kowhai Park to play,” she recalled. “We would run up and down on the little bridge over the pond and feed the ducks. We loved it all.”

The sisters also remember going to the park for athletics and were not happy when their father called out for them to come and line up for their races.

Other special material received by council from users with a special connection to the park include five early-scene postcards from Ruth McIntyre, of Apiti, and a family group photograph from Ruth Dalzell, of Feilding, showing her parents, Jean and Albert Hogan, and sister, Raewyn, at the park in the late 1950s.

Kowhai Park has been a favourite venue for wedding photographs. Bride Heather McGregor, of Feilding, and groom Gordon Jupp, of Taranaki, pose for their photographs in 1954 after being married at St John’s Anglican Church.

The best of the images and personal moments are being considered for inclusion on seven interpretive, directional signs to stand inside the park grounds.

Parks and Reserves Manager, Albert James, was delighted at the new material supplied for possible usage.

“They are perfect and we will certainly look at using them in the signs,” he said.

Mr James said the first of the signs, to be positioned inside the entrance by the new playground off South Street, was almost completed.

“It is a directory-style sign and gives some way-finding cues as to how to move around the park and to link with Kitchener Park. It will help the first-time visitor and point them towards features like the camellia walk and the aviary.”

He said the other signs were largely interpretative and designed to tell stories of the park’s past and detail information on the rose gardens, the trees, floods and historic buildings in the vicinity.

MDC continues to seek further photos and stories and they can be forwarded to Bob Williams, MDC Communications Officer, PO Box 10-001, Feilding, or by emailing bob.williams@mdc.govt.nz

All contributions will be entered into a draw for an appropriate prize.