Just before leaving Featherston on the way to Greytown you pass John’s Workshop on your right hand side. The engine on the green sign above the window and the actual one below, quaintly painted red, say it all.This is the domain of a mechanical nerd. But John Skipage (72) is not a nerd at all. He is very sociable and loves to engage people with his stories. “Everything in here pre-dates the era of electricity,” says John Skipage. “I told kids that the other day and one boy actually asked me: how did the TV work?”
Even for one with no knowledge of engines it is fascinating to look around the workshop. Ploughs are hanging from the ceiling, oil lamps are positioned in front of the window. One side of a wall is lined with pressure gauges, toy trucks in front. This is more like a museum than a workshop. John agrees: “I get ideas of making silly things too,” he says. “This table and the chandelier above it are made from cart wheels.”
Sitting at this table you notice new things all the time. Is that an oven? “Well, it’s the oven door built in the bricks of the old bakery that used to be on Waite Street. That green engine is a 1913 milking engine and behind that a shearing engine.”
John points to another machine in the corner. It’s for sharpening shearing knives. He tells the story of how he got this for $150 in Masterton. “Afterwards the lady who sold it phoned me to say it should have been $300. I said that if she sent me a cheque for $300 I would be happy to pay it. She was not amused.”
A large green and yellow tractor fills a large part of the workshop. “I’m doing it up for my son who has a farm near here. I bought it in Queensland.” That is exceptional, most things in the workshop are from the Wairarapa. John himself has firm roots in Featherston as his family has been here since 1878. “Skipage Grove was even named after my grandfather who was in the council for some years.”
“I was the third generation in our family business of building and moving houses. But I was the only one with a love for mechanics. So I looked after and fixed the vehicles we used for our family business. About ten years ago I decided to knock off the family business and start John’s Workshop”.
“It’s just grown gradually. People give me things and I find other things. The Blacksmith’s forge over there belonged to the Hutt Park Raceway. I still use that from time to time.”
It’s just mind boggling and this story is doing no justice to the feel of the place and the neat and caring way John has put everything in its own place. There is nothing stopping you dropping in at 110 Fitzherbert Street, Featherston and having a look for yourself. He’d love you to!
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