Signal Box Dairy unlikely to reopen

Barbara Kirkland, the owner of the Signal Box Dairy in Featherston, on the night of the fire.

An elderly Featherston couple who lost their sweet-shop dairy in a fire last year say they are probably not fit enough to reopen it, despite donations from the community towards a rebuild.

In December a blaze gutted the historic Signal Box Dairy on Revans St, which was known for the large collection of exotic sweets offered by Barbara and John "Tom" Kirkland.

The couple, who had only just put the dairy on the market, were the victims of a still-warm pie warmer, which ignited timber underneath it.

The boarded-up Signal Box Dairy today.

They had run the dairy for 14 years, but at the time of the fire were uninsured.

Last Wednesday long-time Featherston residents Peter Jackson and Pip Stokes presented the Kirklands with $2000 collected from the community.

The pair had set up donation boxes, one at the supermarket and the other at the railway station, and a Givealittle account online.

"Between those two things, we raised just under $2000," said Mr Jackson.

They had hoped to get more, but "things being what they are, people find it difficult to donate a lot, but we're very pleased."

He understood it would be a costly exercise to rebuild.

"It would be a great shame to see another Featherston icon fall by the wayside."

Mrs Stokes said the Signal Box Dairy had been an icon for her children and for a lot of kids in Featherston.

"Friday nights we would get a 50-cent mix or an icecream," she said.

"I would love to see it opened."

Mrs Kirkland told the Times-Age on Thursday she would love to set up the dairy again, if only for the children.

"I miss them," she said.

"I had two come today on their bikes, and one said, I can't get 50 cents of mixed lollies anywhere else.

"I was nearly crying."

But she and her husband have health issues, and don't have the money to repair the dairy.

"I don't know ... we are not fit at the moment."

Mrs Kirkland said after the fire people were "lovely" and the donations and kindness helped them get through "the worst 10 months they had ever known".

The fire had impacted them badly in terms of cost, and they had had a death in the family this year.

"Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong," she said.

The interior of the dairy is still "horrible" and there is tagging on the boarded windows, which hurts Mrs Kirkland.

The "compatible" pair, as Mr Kirkland puts it, believe in keeping busy and keeping moving, even if it's not as fast as it once was.

They have known each other for over 70 years, since she was two and he was five, having been born on the same street in Rochdale, Lancashire.

They used to hold hands on the street while they waited for their dads to come home from work from the tannery.

"We've had quite a life, haven't we sweetheart," said Mrs Kirkland.

"If people do the same as us, they'll have a wonderful life."

According to Wairarapa Archives historian Gareth Winter, Jim Foss and Cliff Lea constructed the Signal Box Dairy in 1956 from the dismantled signal box at the Summit Station on the Rimutaka Incline.

Featherston historian Pat Flynn said Mr Lea told her it was originally built in 1903.

The pair bought it for 25 pounds and trucked it down to Featherston.

It had been in operation as a dairy ever since.