Colonial four-poster bed at Te Waimate Mission a rare relic

The only known colonial four-poster bed left in New Zealand is housed at the Te Waimate Mission.

It may not look like much at first glance, but this modest-looking bed is a national oddity.

It is the only known colonial four-poster bed left in New Zealand and is housed at the Te Waimate Mission house, in the Bay of Islands.

Heritage New Zealand said it was once a full four-poster before somebody brought the corner posts down to size, probably sometime in the 1860s, making it incredibly rare.

“In fact it’s the only known colonial example of a four-poster bed in New Zealand, despite its diminished capacity.”

Associated with missionary Richard Davis, the bed is on display at Te Waimate Mission – the Tohu Whenua cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in Waimate North.

The bed is also unusual for having a rope “underlay” to give the no-doubt firm mattress an even firmer base, all working towards the net benefits of a good night’s kip. The rope base had the added bonus of being able to be tightened if it ever got a bit slack, allowing for a better sleep – hence the expression “sleep tight”.

The original owner of the bed, Richard Davis, was one of the co-founders of the mission, which had its tentative beginnings in 1830. Davis helped to establish the agricultural outreach to Māori – a key focus of the mission. He also kept detailed weather records at Te Waimate and other parts of the district, recording temperatures and barometric pressure with qualitative comments on wind speed and direction, extreme weather and cloud cover.

In 2019 Davis’ weather records – some of the earliest in New Zealand – were inscribed into Unesco’s Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao.

Te Waimate Mission house is the last surviving building from the mission era and is open to the public.