Digging for goldfield items under the old Red Lion hotel in 1981.

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DescriptionDigging for goldfield items under the old Red Lion hotel in 1981.PhotographerTom HartillDate of Photo1981Map^[1]ContributorGaye Kristine Verlander-Connolly

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Location (city or town)HokitikaOrganisation (eg business)Red Lion HotelEventDigging for goldfield items under the old Red Lion hotel

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Category TagHotels

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CommentsTom Hartill I think it is Tom Lyes down the hole on the left, then Claude Hartill, Tom Lyes' sister, ? Eyles from the museum? Ken Thomas & myself. Eyles had a map which showed originally there was a tidal creek across this site which had been filled in with rubbish probably from the first store in Hokitika. The Post Office hotel was then built on the site in 1865 before burning down in 1888 & being replaced by the Red Lion. The charred piles of the Post Office Hotel were still intact & had been lain on top of 12 x 2s. Under these we were digging pre 1865 items.

Glenn Johnston
Glenn Johnston Attn. Tom Hartill. Tom Lyes sister is Gladys Anderson and yes it is her in the photo. (They are brother and sister of one of NZ's best known deer stalkers Percy Lyes. All three have passed on now.) Tom and Gladys used to cart me around the West Coast goldfields tramping and fossicking. I met your father, Claude Hartill in the early 70's. It was Jim Eyles from the museum. (I went to school with his daughter Lenore).

Don Hutton The Red Lion was past the Forestry building shown in the photo towards the Hokitika River. I think my Uncle Ron Guthrie lived there at one stage before he got married in 1950. The Princess Theatre was close by too on the same side of the street.

Glenn Johnston Tom Hartill Well old time bottle diggers actually missed a small deep patch on the Sewell Street frontage of what was the first Post Office Hotel & later a post fire addition to the Red Lion Hotel. [Part of the site to become the new Mitre 10] I was away in Dunedin when this bit was excavated but was alerted by the museum on return to Hoki about reports of bottle finds. From what I can ascertain just a small area contained a fair number of intact goldfields pickles and a smattering of other bottles. They were among organic material, animal and bird bones etc. Thus the patch of rubbish seemed to be hotel kitchen waste. I saw one of the pickles donated from the finds to the museum and it was a mid 1860's Batey Crown Pickle. A builder showed me the photo of a "fabulous" ornate goldfields pickle that looked early to mid 1860's.

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Digging for goldfield items under the old Red Lion hotel in 1981.

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