First bricks: Children in 1919 each lay a brick as the building of their new school gets under way. Photo / Supplied
First bricks: Children in 1919 each lay a brick as the building of their new school gets under way. Photo / Supplied
A hundred years ago, Parkvale School, Hastings students began their schooling in a hop kiln/oast building designed originally for drying hops as part of the brewing process.
Snapshots of those times were captured and will now be preserved, and available to the public for posterity.
The school recently celebrated its centenary and put together more than 400 pictures dating back to 1919 and donated them to Knowledge Bank, Hawke's Bay.
Identity parade: This photo of a Parkvale School gymnastics team is undated and there are no names. Information is welcome, says Knowledge Bank's Peter Dunkerley. Photo / Supplied
Principal Mark Gifkins says a number of those photographs were originally framed and collected from the 50th and 75th school jubilee.
"A number of other photos were sent directly to Knowledge Bank and some came from the 50th and 75th Jubilee magazines, as well as that we had a flood of photos posted on the Centenary Facebook page we set up which we forwarded to Knowledge Bank."
He says the archived photos were sent to Knowledge Bank, Hawke's Bay so they and the school's history could be publicly available.
One of the photos is of the "hop kiln class", taken in 1919, before the new school building had been constructed.
Searching across the Knowledge Bank's records reveals that a double-kiln oast house was built in 1882, used to process hops grown in Riverslea.
Presumably following the demise of that business, it was used as a classroom leading up to the move to the new building.
The chimneys of the oast house collapsed in the 1931 earthquake – some decades after the children had moved into Parkvale School.
"The students of Parkvale School began their schooling in the Hop Kiln building in 1919 as the school building had not been built at that stage," says Gifkins.
Hop kiln class: Prior to the opening of the new Parkvale School school, these children attended classes in an oast house. Photo / Supplied
"The hop kiln was a building in a nearby paddock which the owners allowed to be used to house the first classes.
"The hop kiln was not on the school property and the Parkvale School buildings were built later in the year on the site it is today."
The school still has the 1914 original plans of future plots and buildings hanging in their school hall, he says.
The photos donated to the Knowledge Bank, Hawke's Bay cover a broad range from photos of the first students laying a brick each on the site of the new building in 1919 and opening day the following year, to class and sport team photos and celebrations over the decades.
Another photo shows the school picnicking in Beatson's Park, as it was then, in 1922.
An article by Hawke's Bay historian Michael Fowler shows the date preceded the clearing of many of the trees for firstly a nine-hole golf course and later a swimming pool and tennis courts, followed by the skating rink, in the 1950s.
Parkvale picnic: Back in 1922 the school takes time out at what is now Windsor Park. Photo / Supplied
The park was renamed Windsor Park in 1935.
Hawke's Bay Digital Archives Trust chairman Peter Dunkerley says most of the Parkvale School images are dated, except for the gymnastic teams and some of the class photos.
He says anyone with more information is welcome to provide it to the Knowledge Bank team.
"These sorts of records are exactly what we envisaged when the organisation was set up nine years ago.
"It's amazing what is out there and we are passionate about making sure these records are available for our residents now, and their descendants. Imagine in another 100 years, when the school is 200 years old; the interest there will be in these."
Knowledge Bank is a charitable trust which collects, digitises and uploads written, oral and photographic records from across Hawke's Bay, to ensure the region's history is preserved for future generations.
