History – Industrial relics survive

Warkworth’s early industrial sites, long abandoned, have become part of the network of reserves that add interest to the town. Best known are the ruins of the cement works in their riverside setting but the old lime kilns in Kowhai Park are also significant. There is evidence that kilns existed at a number of sites on both sides of the Mahurangi river. Combs and Daldy had workings on the left side below the present town bridge, while John Southgate combined his interest in lime with running Warkworth’s first hotel on the right side. Henry Pulham was skipper of a cutter and master of a bullock team and Henry Palmer ran the flour mill. All these men, together with Sir Frederick Whitaker who had been involved with copper mining at Kawau, were connected with the Kowhai Park kilns.

Mahurangi lime was marketed as early as 1850 but the kilns at the park probably date from 1862 when Combs and Southgate leased the land from Frederick Ring, District Surveyor. Two of the kilns are of brick construction pre-dating concrete and a further three have been added later using different materials.

In 1879, the land was bought by the Warkworth Cement Co. This may have been the same men mentioned above who had formed a company or someone new. Their product was offered for sale using an elephant motif as a brand and the slogan ‘Mahurangi Limes are not alike’. The firm prospered in a competitive market but the Wilson brothers were establishing themselves as leaders in the lime and cement industry, and smaller firms were eventually bought out or wound up.

George Such, formerly mine host at the Warkworth Hotel, bought 189 acres including the land owned by the Warkworth Cement Co. in 1889 to build a home for his retirement. He had no interest in the limestone deposits so sold the mineral rights to the Wilsons. The land continued in private ownership until, in 1919, a proposal was put to the Warkworth Town Board suggesting that the area, then known as Hall’s bush, should be purchased as a scenic reserve. Negotiations followed year after year, the stumbling block being the mineral rights which Wilsons (Portland) Cement Co. was reluctant to relinquish. A petition signed by 100 Warkworth residents was presented to their directors in 1927 calling for them to forego the mineral rights in order that steps could be taken to have the area designated as a scenic reserve.

Finally, in April 1932, the acquisition of 10 acres, one rood, 15.4 perches was gazetted. The name Kowhai Park was chosen and the Governor General Lord Bledisloe attended the official opening on 5 April 1934. The variety of native trees in the park provide a pleasant backdrop at Warkworth’s northern entrance and the old kilns, which have survived vandals and the passing of time while other relics have vanished, are a curiosity worth preserving.