Historic item on display

The historic horse swingletree that washed up in a flood in Glenside has been hung on display inside the Heritage Gardeners shed at Halfway House, Glenside Reserve.

Brent Longstaff, a friend of one of the Halfway House Heritage Gardeners, led the project.

The metal chains and clips of the swingletree were linseed oiled and then lightly heated to clear the rust and make the parts movable.

Brent then mounted it on metal brackets, screwed to a wooden board, which in turn is screwed to the dwangs.

“It was a summer project to get it up on the wall and we’re very grateful for Brent’s voluntary time and effort,” says Claire Bibby of the Glenside Progressive Association and Heritage Gardeners.

“He put a lot of effort in to fit everything together so that it was displayed securely.”

The swingletree washed up on the property of a Glenside resident during a flood and was passed onto the Glenside Progressive Association to display at the Halfway House.

“In the horse and cart days there were two farms upstream it was likely to have come from, the Halfway House, or the Bannisters farm, Woodlawn, where Monterey Apartment are,” Claire says.

“It may have also washed out of the bank of a nearby property which was believed to have once been a smithy.”

An old hand forged horseshoe, recently found by drainlayers working on the old Porirua Road in Glenside, will be displayed with the swingletree.

A swingletree is a solid piece of wood, suspended between the rear of the pulling horse and the vehicle or implement it is coupled up with.

Swingletrees are designed to allow the trace chains to pull in a straight line evenly from the horse collar, to the conveyance or farm implement the horse is pulling.

The swingletree on display at Halfway House is a double swingletree, which enables two horses to pull on the conveyance or farm implement.