Help us maintain our precious part of history- Nicol's Blacksmith - NZ's only heritage NZ category 1 listed Village blacksmith
Help us maintain our historic blacksmith we so lovingly restored in 2014.
Duntroon, Otago
Between 2008 and 2015 the small Duntroon community rallied together to fund raise to restore the original village blacksmith that was built in 1904. It has been open to the public since then, with the forge fired up by volunteers every weekends during the summer. However if we are to keep the building for another 100 years we need to preserve the timber exterior with regular re-staining.
So now we are fundraising again to provide seed funding for our grant applications. Since the beginning when we reopened we have maintained that we don't want to charge an entry fee for people to see the blacksmiths working as we think it is a right of everyone to be able to experience this aspect of our country's rural history. Thus we work very hard to just cover our daily running costs solely with donations made by visitors and from the sale of the items created by our volunteers for the Trust. This means we need to reach out further for fundraising for this specific project.
We have started this give-a-little page to make it easier to donate to our project in this modern digital world. All donations to this page will go specifically towards the ongoing maintenance of the building
About us
Nicol’s Blacksmith Historic Trust is a trust set up to preserve the building and history of the original historic village blacksmith in Duntroon. Built in the 1890's, restored in 2014 opened to the public in 2015.
Use of funds
We will use all the funds raised for the ongoing maintenance of the building. Every 10 years the exterior timber needs to be re-stained to protect it from the elements and a thorough roof inspection performed and any issues attended to.
Other page links
Latest update
Fundraising update. 31 March 2025
Fundraising is going very well. Thank you to all who have viewed our page here and to those who have donated both via Give a little and direct into our donations box at the Forge. We are very grateful to the Lion Foundation and Oamaru Licensing trust for their generous support in our project to cover the bulk of the costs. Any money now raised means that we are having to use less from our savings intended for emergency repairs or running cost income.
Latest donations
Thank you so much for your generosity. We are very grateful for our wonderful community volunteer fire service and glad they were there for you in your time of need. We all hope the recovery is going to plan.
Who's involved?