Decades-old cheques found buried under bank

RE/MAX Warkworth has unearthed bundles of banking documents from beneath the recently refurbished BNZ building in Neville Street.

It includes a record of deposits and withdrawals dated August 28, 1948 with familiar local names such as Morrison, Vipond, Steele and Stubbs.

In a twist of fate, it was an electrician from Stubbs Electrical who found the documents while trying to feed wires through the crawl space underneath the bank.

There are also a number of cheques from local businesses, including Wellsford Butchery, Wellsford Pharmacy and Wellsford Motors.

BNZ heritage curator Tanya Connor says it is a mystery as to why the cheques would be stashed underneath the Warkworth bank, particularly as they clearly come from Wellsford.

“There were no sophisticated destruction bins back then, so after processing, cheques would usually be burned at the branch,” she says.