Fast work saves Kemp House

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 3

Fast work saves Kemp House

PA Hamilton Thanks to the fast work of two experts, Kerikeri’s historic Kemp House could be fully restored after the damage done by last week’s flash flood, said a Historic Places Trust executive member Mr Ken Gorbey, yesterday.

The annual conference of the Art Galleries and Museums’ Association in Auckland last week-end was interrupted by news of the disastrous flood and two experts went to Kemp House immediately. Kemp House, built in 1821, is the oldest European house in New Zealand.

They immediately froze valuable, sodden documents and began cleaning up the dirt and damage done by the metre of water that had flowed through the house. The next day Mr Gorbey and another trust committee member also left Jhe conference and joined them in Kerikeri to assess the damage.

In Hamilton yesterday Mr Gorbey said the rapid attention to the house, which the trust owns, had turned the disaster into controlled damage.

The garden had been completely ruined, part of the 1 veranda had been damaged, and wallpaper had been spoilt but there was no serious structural damage and it had been fortunate that the house doors held in the torrent.

If the house had been left for a few days before work began, mould would have set in and dirt and water would have ruined the flurniture, Mr Gorbey said. Only three weeks ago a disaster-preparedness seminar had been held and one of the two persons first on the scene at Kemp House had attended it, he said. “Disaster compounds itself unless people know what to do as in this case,” said Mr Gorbey. It was likely Kemp House

would be closed for about six weeks for restoration but it would not deteriorate further because of the flood. I