Willow Bank is like a stage and you are part of the play. Get dressed-up and walk around in period costumes. Have Devonshire tea in our Victorian Cafe, or a milkshake in our 1970s replica RSA and there is a 1950s burger bar.

This building was the study from Rev John Hiddlestone MBE ED born 1893

WWII: The unavailing defense of Crete in May 1941 by the survivors of the Greek campaign against the German airborne corps also cost New Zealand dearly. Of the 7700 New Zealand soldiers committed to the defense of Crete, 3818 became casualties, and among the 2180 who became prisoners were four chaplains who had volunteered to stay behind with the seriously wounded at the hurried evacuation. They were: Robert John Griffiths of 23 Battalion; John Hiddlestone ED, of 5
Field Ambulance; Enry Ivor Hopkins, of 6 Field Ambulance; and Walter Edmund Wilmshurst Hurst of 22 Battalion.
The senior of these was the fortyeight-year-old Chaplain Hiddlestone, who had served in the ranks during the capture of German Samoa in World War I and later with 4th Field Company NZE in France. (information out of the book Men of Faith & Courage, page 113)
In captivity personal problems weigh more heavily on men than in ordinary life, civil or Army, and NZ chaplains in POW camps worked tirelessly to keep up the men’s spirits. Two of them, Chaplain
Griffiths and Hiddlesone, were both awarded MBEs in 1946 for their distinguished services. (Men of Faith & Courage, page 115)
His son, Herbert John Hiddlestone, became a well known doctor in Nelson.
His family gave us the rucksack John Hiddlestone wore during his time in WWII.