Carnegie Library and Saxon Mine Shaft given TLC

Thames’ rich heritage will receive a boost with restoration work set to begin on two iconic buildings to ensure they are not only preserved but brought as closely as possible back to their former glory.

 

Thames-Coromandel District Council has approved budgets for the restoration of both the Saxon Mine Shaft building and the Carnegie Library, which are both registered with the Historic Places Trust and listed under the council’s Heritage Policy in the District Plan.

 

Work is about to begin on restoring the Carnegie Library after a tender was let to Partridge Construction BOP Ltd. Its restoration is a joint project with the Coromandel Heritage Trust and it is hoped the building will be completed before Christmas.

 

Among the tasks the company faces in order to restore the building back to its original state is reproducing original old door handles, refurbishing the 3m high doors in their 4m arches and removing surface mounted fittings wherever possible.

 

The 1905 building has 5m high studs, pressed metal ceiling tiles, heritage tiles, original gas fittings, fireplaces, ceramic lights, huge sash windows and original skirting boards that are double the usual height found in Victorian villas.

 

It will be rewired and the huge windows will be restored to ensure waterproofing. When complete, the building will house genealogical and historical archives.

 

The library is among numerous Carnegie Libraries created in New Zealand thanks to the generosity of Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie, who emigrated to America in 1848 and made his fortune manufacturing steel.

 

Only the second Carnegie Library built in New Zealand following Westport which opened in 1904, the Thames Carnegie Library is thought to be the most original and intact example remaining in New Zealand today.

 

Mr Carnegie channelled his philanthropic energies into creating libraries after being given the opportunity to visit a personal library once a week as a working boy, according to a conservation report to TCDC. “He credited it with instilling in him a love of literature, with steering him clear of “low fellowship and bad habits” and showing him “the precious treasures of knowledge and imagination through which youth may ascend”.”

 

 

 

By the time World War 1 brought an end to Andrew Carnegie’s library building programme, he had provided $44 million to fund the creation of over 1600 free public libraries in the United States and almost 900 more in Great Britain and the British Dominions. By 1914 he had assisted in the construction of 18 library buildings in New Zealand.

 

The Saxon Mine Shaft building, meanwhile, is a category 2 registered building with the Historic Places Trust and it serves to protect a 415ft vertical old gold mining shaft. It will be stabilised and repaired to protect its heritage values as required under the council’s district plan.

 

In 1889 this mine, the Saxon Shaft, was developed from the old Crown Princess shaft off Albert Street working gold-producing reefs which ran under the streets of the town. Seventy men were employed and in the first year obtained 7683 ounces of gold produced from 8200 tons of ore. In 1890, 8771 ounces were extracted from 14550 tons of ore.

 

This pumping station has a double significance as the site of the Saxon mine and because of its location in the heart of the heritage study area. It is envisaged that the area will be landscaped and interpreted as part of a heritage tour or walk.

 

At today’s Policy and Planning Committee meeting councillors received a report on the council’s District Plan Heritage Review Project, the aim of which is a comprehensive study on heritage in Thames-Coromandel including archaeology, trees, historic landscapes and sites significant to iwi.

 

Such a review would go beyond examples of heritage that are currently included in the District Plan and requires $50,000 a year for three years to be granted to a "Natural and Cultural Heritage Activity Plan". Councillors will decide on this during LTCCP deliberations on 2 October.