$300,000 appeal for Ferrymead launched

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34149, 10 May 1976, Page 14

$300,000 appeal for Ferrymead launched

Development of one of the finest transport and technological museums in the world is planned by the Ferrymead Trust, which at a ball on Saturday evening launched a $300,000 public appeal. The ball was held in the first of the trust’s major new buildings on its 100acre site. Opening the new 15,000 sq. ft Hall of Wheels, the trust’s chairman (Mr S. H. Wood) said that volunteers from 10 societies had put a million man-hours into laying the foundations of what could soon become a great “living” museum to collect, exhibit, and demonstrate the tools and machines used to create organised settlement in Canterbury. Accelerated development was now critical, and $300,000 was the minimum required to finance

The plans include the construction of a township with a wide range of typical early buildings — including a town hall, post office, church, school, bank, gaol and police station, printery, blacksmith, old-time garage for the display of vintage cars, a bakery (already completed), a barber’s shop, and cottages. TRAMLINE EXTENSION

The trust plans to extend the existing tramline to run through the township, construct streets and footpaths, erect a railway station, and undertake riverbank protection works for the extension of the present railway, which will eventually be linked with the' Christ-church-Lyttelton line. Exhibition space for a C 47 and Viscount aircraft as well as a full-sized lunar landing module will be provided; a geodesic dome and caretaker’s cottage will be built; and the trust will also complete its new hall, designed by Warren and Mahoney and built by its own construction company at a cost of $120,000, to bring it up to exhibition standard.

"These plans are crucial to the development of Ferrymead and must proceed as soon as possible,” Mr Wood said. “Christchurch has a tradition of leading where others follow and capacity for uniting in a common cause. The Town Hal! and the Commonwealth Games

provided evidence of this. It is because of this tradition and this sense of history that the trustees have launched this appeal.” $lO,OOO GIFT Mr Wood announced the first major gift to the appeal — $lO,OOO from a Christchurch businessman, Mr R. H. Stewart, and Mrs Stewart. Mr Stewart, who is president of the appeal, had also undertaken to sponsor the establishment of a motor museum at Ferrymead, Mr Wood said. Mr M. A. Connelly, member . of Parliament, who

drove the first stake when construction of the new hall began two years ago, wielded a huge spanner to tighten the final nut under the supervision of Mr Miles Warren, and the manager of the Ferrymead Construction Company (Mr D. Muir) formally handed the keys of the new building to Mr Wood. Official guests at the ball made a novel entry. After travelling across the Ferrymead park by steam train, they transferred to immaculately groomed vintage cars and were driven into the hall.