The Chertsey Shearing shed which was opened in 1904 and continued through until the early 1950s .I can remember as a young boy being taken over there by our teacher to watch the sheep being shorn and there was also a sheep dip there and seeing the sheep being pushed through it.There were quarters there for single men and i assume the shearers stayed there.It was used by all the local farmers as it was a community shed and when they started to build their own Shearing sheds in the 50s it was finished.I can remember farmers driving there sheep up the road past our Home on there way to the shed. As you will see the road they are on is the Main road and is not yet sealed this was not done until 1927
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Mr Dan Lynch shown here with Horse and Traction engine.Mr Lynch was what in todays terms would be and Agriculture Contractor as he had chaff cutters thrashing mills and traction engines etc.We can only assume this photo was taken not long after 1919 as thats when Mr Lynch returned from WW 1. and he can be seen in some of his army uniform | This was the way children to far out of the village to walk made their way to School. When I first started school in the early 1950s i can remember the Doigs with a horse and cart and the Shaws who rode on horse back.They left the horses in the section across the road from the General store. |
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Chertsey has had a number of Sawmills over the years probably the first being the one operated by Toswell & Knight in the early 1920s .This was steam powered and was about 2 miles south of the Village at the bottom of Wards Road.There was also one owned by a Mr O Whiting in the late 1940s early 1950s which i think might have been portable.But probably the bigest was the one in the photos which has Mr Des Downes in truck and on loader and Mr Bruce Mckie standing.It was first operated by Mr E Roy Plunkett and taken over by the Papanui Timber Company in 1948.They exported a lot of there timber to Australia, and employed a lot of local men and the manager was a Mr Harry Kyles. It closed in 1957.Another sawmill in more modern times was built by a Mr Nielson in the middle 1960s which was first used to cut larch to make Farm hurldles and mothering up pens for lambing Over the years it was owned by Mr Irvin Behrns ,Johnny Jackson and finaly by A Kuyf and co which when Mr Kuyf owned it was expanded and a breaking down saw installed and used to cut timber a lot of logs from the 1975 storm ,still the larch but also pine bluegum etc for his use and the local market.It was closed around 1980.
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These Traction engine road trains could be seen around the District in the early 1900s taking wool to rail heads like Chertsey Rakaia etc | This is the second Chertsey School that was moved from Pendarves in 1896 and was used till 1967 when the new School opened. |
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Here is the Chertsey store built in 1878 undergoing extensive modernisation in the 1950s It was then owned by Mr John Brightling and the building work done by Ashburton builder Mr Frank Richards.The store still stands today now used as a House after its closure in 1990. | Here is a thrashing Mill working on a farm in the early 1950s .This was part of Mr Dan Lynchs business at the time .Probably not that many years later this sort of farming stopped with the coming of headers etc and today the only part of this sort of labour intensive work done on farms is chaff cutting for horses |
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