Yaldhurst Museum facts for kids
The Yaldhurst Museum is a cool place in Yaldhurst, Christchurch, New Zealand. It's close to the Christchurch International Airport and the Riccarton Race Course. This museum has a huge collection of vehicles, like cars and trucks. It first opened its doors to visitors in 1968.
Contents
History of the Museum
The museum was started by a man named Alfred Thornhill Cooper, who people called Jake Cooper. He loved collecting vehicles and began his collection in 1950. In 1963, he bought his family's old home, Dudley House, in Yaldhurst. He wanted to build his museum there.
The property had an old two-story house built in 1876, plus two stables and a small shed. It was on about 8 acres (around 32,000 square meters) of land. Jake Cooper built more display areas and storage spaces. The museum officially opened to the public on December 26, 1968, which is also known as Boxing Day. Its first name was the Yaldhurst Museum of Transport and Science.
What You Can See at the Museum
Many of the items at the museum are shown just as they were found. The collection includes lots of different vehicles. You can see cars, racing cars, and even big commercial trucks. There are also motorcycles, scooters, and power-cycles.
If you like older transport, you'll find horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. The museum also has tractors and other farm equipment. You can see stationary engines, military items, and even fire engines! The original Yaldhurst School building was moved to the museum in 1984, so you can see that too.
Horse-Drawn Vehicles
The museum has a big collection of horse-drawn vehicles, with 119 different ones. These vehicles came from all over the South Island of New Zealand. The oldest one is an American Buggy from 1810!
You can see many types of carriages, like gigs, drays, and broughams. There are also bakers' carts, milk carts, and even a night cart. One of the rarest vehicles is a hearse from around 1886. A hearse is a special carriage used to carry a coffin. This one was used in Invercargill and is said to have carried the body of New Zealand Prime Minister Richard Seddon when he died in 1906. This hearse is one of only three known to still exist in New Zealand.
Amazing Cars
The Yaldhurst Museum has 137 cars! You can find many famous car brands like Austin, Dodge, Singer, Morris, Ford, and Jaguar.
Some of the cars are very rare. For example, there's a 1938 International car coupe. Only five of these were made in New Zealand. You can also see a very old 1908 Daimler car.
The museum also has a replica fire station. Inside, you'll find nine different fire engines. One is a manual fire engine from about 1874. Another is a 1938 Ford V8 fire engine. This Ford fire engine was at the very serious J. Ballantyne & Co department store fire in Christchurch on November 18, 1947. This was a terrible fire where many people lost their lives.
The Printing Shop
The museum also has a special print shop. It holds a large collection of printing presses and other equipment used for printing. Most of these are letterpresses, which are old-style printing machines. There are also some smaller offset presses.
The most impressive machine is an 1863 Wharfdale flat bed tumble cylinder press. This huge newspaper press needs two people to operate it! It was made in England and was first used in Invercargill around 1863 to print the Southland Times newspaper. Later, in 1914, it moved to Waimate to print the Daily Advertiser. The museum got it in 1972, and it still works! Sometimes, they even show how it prints.
