Thames School of Mines

Thames was a gold town of some size in the 1870s - briefly with more people than Auckland - and it needed trained mine workers, so a School of Mines opened in 1886 to teach assaying, metallurgy, geology and surveying to men working the field. It ran until 1954 and then simply stopped, and what makes the site remarkable is that very little was cleared out afterwards: the laboratory has its benches and apparatus, the assay furnaces are in place, the lecture rooms have their fittings, and the mineralogical museum holds several thousand specimens in the original wooden cases with handwritten labels. It is one of the more complete surviving nineteenth-century technical schools anywhere. The buildings include one of the oldest in Thames, a chapel of 1868. It is small, quiet, and considerably more interesting than the description suggests if you have any interest in how the gold came out of the ground.

What to look for

• The assay laboratory - benches, furnaces and apparatus in place.
• The mineral collection - thousands of specimens in original cases.
• The lecture rooms - fitted as they were when teaching ended in 1954.
• The 1868 chapel - among the oldest buildings in Thames.

When to go

Any season. Opening days are limited, particularly outside summer - check before travelling. Ticketed.

What to expect

It is small and specialised; visitors without an interest in mining or Victorian technical education find an hour is plenty. Opening hours are restricted and seasonal.

Nearby

The Thames goldmine experience is up the hill; the Coromandel coast road runs north.

Key facts