Slowly They Will Climb The Hill

Today we went for a walk at Ngawhatu which is behind Stoke the next suburb to mine.  Back in 1886 an orphanage had opened there.  When it closed the building was taken over as a hospital for mental health patients in 1922.  Over the years it spread into the valley with an infrastructure of residental villas, support service buildings, sports facilities, gardens. orchards and farm buildings.  By the late 1980's it was being closed and patients moved into the community.  The land has been sold and housing is moving into the valley.  All that remains are the tall trees planted back then and some of them have heritage status.  I took the blip from the cemetery which has the graves of 24 boys who died while at the orphanage.