According to Owen Anderson, a long-time club stalwart, the moves to form the club arose out of the initiative of the late Jack McKenzie. He had noted an abandoned vintage Avery tractor under trees near Garston in northern Southland and was instrumental in organising its restoration to working condition by a local engineer and other men from the western Southland region. Indeed, so well was the Avery restored that it took part in the Southland Provincial Centenary Celebrations in 1956.
Out of this operation, the Thornbury Vintage and Implement Club was formed, and the first ploughing match for vintage tractors and machinery was held near Thornbury. Since then, such ploughing matches and vintage tractor and machinery rallies have regularly been conducted by the club. And these days, it is known throughout New Zealand for its activities and displays, with its premises becoming more and more popular with the travelling public and overseas guests.
The club is a major presence in Thornbury township, with five buildings on its premises. These are all named after life members of the club: John A McKenzie; John A Anderson; George Patterson; Bruce Lindsay; and Les Brown.
While the club has an impressive array of tractors and other rural vehicles, more and more visitors are becoming fascinated by the very impressive collection of farm machinery and equipment on display at the museum. These include threshing mills, chaff cutters, reapers, ploughs and other equipment, some of which is well over 100 years old and, indeed, is probably universally unique.
Among the collection is a threshing machine, manufactured in the early 19th century. It is very primitive and was driven by a Pelton Wheel - a form of energy from compressed water. This machine was discovered in a rubbish heap at Paradise, near Glenorchy, at the head of Lake Wakatipu by Thornbury stalwarts Stan Bulling and Bruce Lindsay. As another great supporter of the museum, Les Brown patiently restored the machine to working condition.
Another interesting exhibit in the Thornbury Museum is a Campbell 5.5hp motor made in Halifax, England, in 1900. It is of the hot tube ignition type and was originally owned by Henry Hicks of Owaka in South Otago. Originally, it powered a saw bench and then a pump to supply water to a sawmill in the Catlins Region. In commercial use until about 1940, the motor was unused for many years, until it was bought by a local man, Linton Strang of Waimatuku, who restored it to working order. The motor is on loan to the museum from the Strang family, and it still goes with a roar.
Among the vintage farm machinery on display at Thornbury is what is believed to be one of the earliest hay tedders ever manufactured: a Martin tedder, brought to New Zealand by Alexander McKenzie of Otahuti, who farmed near Thornbury.
In 1913, McKenzie was on a world tour. Having prospered as a farmer and being renowned for his far-sightedness, McKenzie was travelling through England when he saw the Martin tedder, and realised its advantages over the hand raking of hay. However, World War I intervened and the tedder was not delivered until hostilities in Europe had ceased. It remained with the McKenzie family until it was donated to the museum, where it was restored to a near-new condition by Brown.
In the corner of one of the museum's pavilions is a bright red threshing mill. It has a rather intriguing history and is unusual, in itself, in being constructed of wood. Until the 1940s, mills such as this were quite common throughout New Zealand, but with the coming of more advanced machinery, such as the combine harvester, it almost totally disappeared. Those that are owned by collectors are usually made of pressed steel and are known as 'tin mills.'
According to the records of the Thornbury Museum, this particular red wooden mill was built around 1880 by Shearer and Co of the United Kingdom. It was imported to New Zealand shortly after construction as "a wedding present for a young bride in the Blackmount area" - those were the days! It later passed through the hands of the Cuthbertson family to the O'Briens at Sunnyside, who operated the mill until 1940. The mill then lay idle for some years until it was presented to the Thornbury Vintage Club by the O'Brien family.
Probably the most unusual exhibit in what is a very unusual collection is a system donated to the museum by the now non-existent company of Willett Implements Limited, from the nearby city of Invercargill, one of the oldest farm machinery manufacturing companies in New Zealand. For many years, it supplied farm machinery and equipment to the farmers of southern New Zealand. It was a truly family firm, establishing a solid clientele in the south.
When the company was wound up a number of years ago, John Willett, who had acquired the system donated it to the museum. It consists of an accumulator, 10hp motor, a water pump, two vertical presses for forming mould boards and a bed for pressing plough beams. These were used for many years, first in the workshop of the famous Reid and Gray at Burnside, Dunedin, and then by Willett Implements in Invercargill.
The manganese steel for the mould boards is the same as is still used for making domestic utensils such as knives and forks. It came from Australia where 20-30-tonne billets would be rolled out to the requisite thickness and shipped to Dunedin or Invercargill.
In the workshop, the mould board would be cut to shape and, after being heated to a high heat in the forge, would be pressed into shape with the appropriate Willett mould board. Beams for the plough were treated similarly. Like all of the other tractor and implement exhibits in the museum - many of which are owned outright by the Thornbury Vintage Club while others are privately owned or on loan - this system is in full working order.
The Thornbury Vintage Tractor and Implement Club is constantly involved with A&P shows, displays, ploughing matches and parades, and the club itself is open to the public from 1.30pm until 4.30pm every Sunday between Labour Weekend and Queen's Birthday.