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AUGUST 1, 2024
Protecting their history
The two towers
What’s in the belfry?
Cambridge is rising to the challenge - one to see an under-threat water tower remain, the other to hear its 143 year old church bells ringing again. Mary Anne Gill reports. By Mary Anne Gill
A new Save the Cambridge Water Tower group signed up 50 members on Sunday and vows to have “meaningful” not “combative” conversations with Waipā District Council about the tower’s future. Chair Peter Fulton told members the 24-metre-high tower – built in 1902 to provide water for the growing town in what was then a sheep paddock – is now at the centre of a buzzing area. “Why knock it down?” New national earthquake building standards - introduced after the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes - forced councils like Waipā to assess its buildings. The water tower failed the seismic test and estimates of more than $6 million to fix it prompted the council to poll the community through its enhanced annual plan process. But Fulton argued the council only put two options to the community – bowl the tower over for $800,000 and use the bricks to build a feature on the site or restore it. Little wonder 62 per cent voted for the lower cost, he said. There was a third option – keep it and find some investors. “This is a great story for the community quite apart from the fact we want to save that building. “We want to work with council, we are not going to be combative. The mayor has left the door open, so we
want to put forward some ideas to her and council about what they (heritage experts) call adaptive reuse.” Tamahere resident John Waterhouse said he bought a unit in the neighbouring Resthaven Retirement Village – less than 20 metres from the tower – for his mother in 2018. At the time of purchase he was told the water tower was coming down but was heartened to hear that because of its historic classification, it would remain. The circular structure has been listed in the Waipā District Plan since 2010 as a Category A historic building. Resthaven opened in 1972 with retirement cottages. A geriatric hospital and an intermediate care wing opened in 1974, 1979 and 1985, encroaching ever closer to the water tower. Waterhouse argues Resthaven, a community-owned trust, is worried about the risks the tower presents for its residents – but it was council which allowed Resthaven to expand right up to the water tower. “The tower is capable of standing for at least another 10 years, whilst a more considered, less commercially coloured view of its future could be considered." The tower was decommissioned in 1926 when the Moon’s Spring, from which the tower drew its water Save the Cambridge Water Tower group founders, from left, Dave Linthwaite, supply, was found to be polluted. Elizabeth Harvey, Peter Fulton, David Griffin, James Casey, Mike Kilgour. • More photos cambridgenews.nz Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
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Pigeons and their toxic poo have silenced the six bells in St Andrew’s Anglican Church belfry. One of the four kauri pillars holding up the bell tower at the historic white Cambridge church is rotten at the base – a victim of 143 years of pigeon excrement. The only people allowed into the vestry are those who turn the church lights on – and campanologists – the formal word for bell ringers – are unable to access the belfry. Engineers are preparing a report. The cast steel bells, weighing 1524kg, are usually hand rung every Sunday before the first service and during the week when bell ringers practice. Steve Riddell of the church’s building committee said the rot was discovered in the 300mm square kauri beam when they were preparing to paint the church. “The other three beams are fine,” he said. Builders removed timber planks alongside the beam and were relieved to find the rot had not spread. Plywood has been temporarily put over the rotting timber. St Andrew’s Church was built in 1881 by William G Connolly, and the bells were installed three years later for £360. • Read more at cambridgenews.nz
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