Old Skills in Action Day at Feilding's Coach House Museum on April 18

Coach House Museum manager Piki Fairbairn demonstrates how to use a wash board to clean your clothes the pre-electric way.

Pick your number of greats, but the skills our great-great-grandparents needed for everyday living are on display in Feilding this Sunday.

The Coach House Museum's Old Skills in Action Day is held every two years and many of the demonstrators come from out of town.

It's a chance to learn about the skills and hard work done to lay the foundations we enjoy today, manager Piki Fairbairn says.

Among the skills brought to life will be blacksmithing, rope making using a 1911 machine, horse shoeing, blade shearing of sheep, sewing with a pedal machine and weaving.

"It's a great opportunity for people to bring the kids and grandkids along and start those conversations about how different life is now."

A wood bender will demonstrate how wooden car wheels are made while visitors can see a pre-electric wash house complete with washboard and Sunlight soap. Before appliances the days were pretty long, Fairbairn says.

"Nowdays we don't have time for anything. Time is so precious, we are always trying to squeeze everything in."

If you are experiencing wash-day blues check out the photo of Āpiti pioneer Angela Jacobs toiling to keep her family in clean clothes.

There'll be horse and cart rides, steam traction engines, vintage cars and machines, a pipe band, Devonshire teas, and the screening of silent 1928 movie Frances of Feilding.

Fairbairn is particularly looking forward to a new feature - races to assemble and then drive a 1915 Model T Ford on loan from Hawke's Bay.

Visitors can have their photo taken with the Feilding and Kimbolton stagecoach.

The Coach House Museum moved from its Bowen St site to South St in 2012. It has 140 volunteers and Fairbairn is the only paid staff member.

Its permanent exhibitions include a bush scene with the sounds of native birds, surveying the land, timber milling, agriculture, a virtual gig ride and an extensive John Deere collection.

In time for Anzac Day is temporary exhibition Ngā Toa that tells the story of Feilding WWII serviceman Hugh Nairn. Born in 1914, Nairn died in 2009. He served in Egypt, North Africa and Italy and captured his experiences with drawings.

The Details
What: Old Skills in Action Day
When: Sunday, April 18, 10am-4pm
Where: Coach House Museum, 127 South St, Feilding
Tickets: $10 adults, $5 children, $20 family available on the day