Cement works stories wanted

The Warkworth Museum is putting out a call to long-time locals whose families may have had a connection to the Wilson Cement Works.

The abandoned works, at the end of Wilson Road on the Mahurangi River, operated from around 1882 to the 1920s and, at the peak, employed nearly 200 workers.

Museum manager Victoria Joule says that while there is quite a bit of information about the works, and its founder Nathaniel Wilson and his family, the museum is keen to expand on this with stories from the workers and others who might have had an association with the works.

The museum is compiling the information ahead of an exhibition, which will go on public display later this year.

“We know that there were strikes and accidents, and that the works would have had a big impact on the town, both during its operation and when it closed down,” Joule says.

“It’s these stories that we would like to hear.”

As an example of the sort of information the museum is seeking, Joule cites an essay written by Betty Wyatt, the daughter of Walter Chessum:

“Dad worked at the cement works travelling there by dinghy as did the neighbours on either side. I would’ve been three years old when one day my Dad took some visitors on a sight-seeing trip to the Cement Works and I went along, too. I was terrified – all that machinery, wheels going round, the noise and the dust-laden air. It was enough to frighten any small child and that is probably why I remember something that happened when I was so young.”  

Joule can be contacted by email at: warkworthmuseum@xtra.co.nz or phone the museum on 425 7093.