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Introduction

The Feilding & Districts Community Archive was established through the collaboration of the Feilding & Districts Historical Society, the Feilding branch of the NZ Society of Genealogists, and the Manawatu Historic Vehicle Collection Trust.  These three groups could see the need for a community based archive that would safeguard and formally house the material that pertains to the wider Manawatu area.

The informal arrangement whereby the Manawatu District Council collected and catalogued community archive material was no longer working because of a lack of suitable storage space.  So, the three groups, in cooperation with the Manawatu District Council, set about the planning and development of an archive facility under the umbrella of the Coach House Museum, a facility built to preserve and store the history of this area. 

The archives inherited from the Manawatu District Council contain material from many local clubs and organisations, both current and defunct, providing a wonderful insight into our District's past. There are some significant personal collections containing relevant documents and photographs depicting local history and, in particular, material donated or gathered for the 1974 Centennial Celebrations of the founding of Manchester Block and the Feilding Borough Council Centenary in 1981.

The archive is run totally by volunteers, and is open for contributions or research each Thursday afternoon from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.