John and Pip Gray

John and Pip Gray

The gardens at Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium are looking blooming beautiful thanks to the specialist skills of contract gardening duo John and Pip Gray. John is a qualified landscape designer and stonemason with more than 35 years’ experience and his wife Pip is a...
From Rags to Riches

From Rags to Riches

A fascinating ‘rags to riches’ story is the life of Henry Edward Partridge, who joined the Navy in England aged 13 with minimal education to become the wealthy owner of a large collection of Gottfried Lindauer paintings of Maori. Partridge, who is buried at Purewa...
Ship Sinking

Ship Sinking

Three members of the Bloomfield family are buried next to each other in Purewa Cemetery after the tragic sinking of the ‘Empress of Ireland’ in Canada in 1914. Robert William Read Bloomfield aged 52, his wife Isabella Louise aged 46 and their daughter Hilda Isabella...
Both Chapels at Purewa Have Been Refurbished

Both Chapels at Purewa Have Been Refurbished

Both chapels at Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium have just undergone an internal refurbishment. The airy, light interiors have been painted a crisp white and the floors recarpeted in new Axminster wool carpet in fresh forest tones. New curtains consist of coarse sheers...
Rain Water Recycling into Purewa Gardens

Rain Water Recycling into Purewa Gardens

The days of hand watering Purewa’s gardens during Summer water restrictions will soon be gone when the cemetery introduces a new environmental irrigation system in April. The project will collect rainwater from the chapel roof which will be gravity fed into piping to...
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