Our Treasures: Tea set with a local flavour at Whangārei Museum
25 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM
3 minutes to read
OUR TREASURES
Among the ceramic treasures held by Whangārei Museum is a tea set bearing well-known scenes of the city - the Whangarei Falls, Cameron St and a view of Bank St. The mystery is how did this set, made in England, come into being?
This piqued my interest and set me down a path of research that turned up many interesting facts.
The tea set was made by Grimwades, an English pottery firm based in Stoke on Tent.
This company was set up by the Grimwade brothers, Leonard and Sidney, in 1885.
Whangarei Falls was preserved under the Scenery Preservation Act.
How did some of NZ s most scenic spots win protection from development? WILL HARVIE takes a look at the history of government-funded efforts to protect some of our beautiful landscapes. As gigs go, being appointed to the Scenery Preservation Commission in 1904 sounds pretty good. They were given expense accounts and ordered to visit all parts of Aotearoa New Zealand to find naturally beautiful places. The commissioners then bought these places (or tried to) and preserved them for all time. The five men who got this gig indeed identified and bought beautiful places – 61 of them totalling almost 5900 hectares.