Many of the Easter Open Brethren Conferences were held at venues like racecourses that had the grounds and facilities to accommodate large numbers. This meant everything had to be brought and set up at the Racecourse and as numbers increased, the desire to have their own camps was discussed more and more.
In Hawke's Bay, the aspiration to have their own camp was promptly placed on their agenda after an unfortunate incident at the end of their 1956 Easter Camp.
It transpired that an enthusiastic volunteer cleaner inadvertently picked up all the abandoned clothing and promptly dumped them all with the camp rubbish. Unknowingly, the riding gear the jockeys used, known as Jockey Silks, were among the castoffs and were now mixed with the camp garbage. After being notified by the Racing Club, and with the urgency that the jockeys needed their racing kit for the next race day, the elders and their wives had to go out after work one night and in the dark search for the lost garments at the local dump.
It was a huge task going through all the rubbish at the Hastings tip, and everyone returned home very tired and extremely smelly. Among the memories of that night, there were rats as large as cats scampering around! In the goodness of the Lord, the silks were found and taken home to be washed and ironed by the wives.
The challenges of hiring the racecourse were now discussed with more urgency and the Easter Camp Committee agreed it was time to look for facilities they could call their own. A place where no jockey silks would ever be misplaced again. It was in the aftermath of the 1956 camp that the idea of owning their own facilities became the Easter Camp Committee’s priority.
