John Edward (Ned) Shewry

Last updated April 12, 2019

John Edward (Ned) Shewry (1889 – 1 August 1962), was a world champion woodchopper from New Zealand. Born in Stratford, New Zealand, he was one of 11 children of John and Elizabeth Shewry. The Shewrys were early settlers in Tahora in the Eastern Taranaki hill country, where they set to clearing a large block of land on Moki Road for pasture between the Makino and Waitaanga forests. The felling of timber dominated the lives of the Shewry family, and growing up in this setting clearly left a lasting impression on the young John Edward.

New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Stratford is the only town in Stratford District, and the seat of the Taranaki Region, in New Zealand's North Island. It lies beneath the eastern slopes of Mount Taranaki/Egmont, approximately halfway between New Plymouth and Hawera, near the geographic centre of the Taranaki Region. The town has a population of 5,740, making it the 47th largest urban area in New Zealand, and the fourth largest in Taranaki.

Early life

At the age of 17, he took up farming with his older brother Archie on the block next-door, and set to work clearing the land with “just a couple of axes, a saw and a packet of matches".^[1] He quickly developed good skills and technique with an axe, and soon caught the eye of the elder local bushman Hughie McLeod, who entered Shewry in the chopping events at the 1909 Whangamomona sports day.

Whangamomona is a small township in the Stratford District and Manawatu-Wanganui Region in New Zealand. It lies on State Highway 43, the "Forgotten World Highway", 65 kilometres (40 mi) north-east of Stratford and 55 kilometres (34 mi) south-west of Ohura. By rail it is 61 kilometres (38 mi) from Stratford on the Stratford-Okahukura railway line.

After a terrible first chop, Shewry quickly picked up his act, and returned the next year to win the local competition. In 1911 he won in Eltham, the “Mecca of axemen”, and carried on his winning streak at a number of other chopping events around Taranaki and the King Country.

Eltham is a small inland town in South Taranaki, New Zealand, located 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of the city of New Plymouth and southeast of the volcanic cone of Mount Taranaki/Egmont. Stratford is 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) north, Kaponga 13 km west, and Hawera is 19 km (12 mi) south. State Highway 3 runs through the town.

Mecca, also spelled Makkah, is a city in the Hejazi region of the Arabian Peninsula, and the plain of Tihamah in Saudi Arabia, and is also the capital and administrative headquarters of the Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of 277 m (909 ft) above sea level, and 340 kilometres (210 mi) south of Medina. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although visitors more than triple this number every year during the Ḥajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah.

In sports, a winning streak is a sequence of won games or competitions. It can be applied to teams in team sports, and individuals in individual sports. In sports where teams or individuals represent groups such as countries or regions, those groups can also be said to have 'winning streaks' if their representatives win consecutive games or competitions, even if the competitors are different. Streaks can also be applied to specific competitions: for example a competitor who wins an event in three consecutive Olympic Games has an Olympic winning streak, even if they have lost other competitions during the period.

International Competition in 1912

In 1912, he competed in Auckland against world champion Dave Pretty, and Australian greats Bill Peck and Charlie Miley, and beat them all. Shewry went on to compete in Australian events in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Rockhampton and MacKay, then returned to New Zealand to win the world championship in Eltham, winning the 24 inch championship, the visitors' trophy for the 15 inch standing chop and the 12 inch underhand chop.

Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest urban area in the country, with an urban population of around 1,628,900. It is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. A diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. The Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning "Tāmaki with a hundred lovers", in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions.

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 25 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Brisbane is the capital of and the most populated city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of 2.5 million, and the South East Queensland region, centred on Brisbane, encompasses a population of more than 3.5 million. The Brisbane central business district stands on the historic European settlement and is situated inside a peninsula of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range, sprawling across several of Australia's most populous local government areas (LGAs)—most centrally the City of Brisbane, which is by far the most populous LGA in the nation. The demonym of Brisbane is "Brisbanite".

World War I

Shewry’s woodchopping career was interrupted by World War I, and in 1915, he and his brother David joined the New Zealand Cycling Corps and served in Egypt, France and Belgium. Shewry’s war service was recognised with the Military Medal for bravery, which he received for saving an officer's life while under fire. Tragically, though, his brother David died from injuries received in France in 1917. Ned was twice wounded in battle, but when he returned home he was a fit man keen to return to the woodchopping arena.

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, and across the Mediterranean lie Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

International Competition from 1921 to 1934

In 1921, Shewry won the world championship 24-inch (45 cm) chop at Gisborne, and smashed the Australasian record for the 12-inch (30 cm) kahikatea chop with a time of 25 seconds - 8.4 seconds faster than the record set by Dave Pretty in 1908. Over the next few years Shewry travelled around New Zealand demonstrating his skills at fairs and carnivals. In 1925 he won the Australasian title at the Dunedin Exhibition, the right and left-handed chop at North Auckland, the 18-inch (45 cm) at Hamilton, and the 18-inch underhand at Taihape.

Gisborne is a city in northeastern New Zealand and the largest settlement in the Gisborne District. It has a population of 37,200. The district council has its headquarters in Whataupoko, in the central city.

Australasia comprises Australia, New Zealand, and some neighbouring islands. It is used in a number of different contexts including geopolitically, physiographically, and ecologically where the term covers several slightly different but related regions.

Hamilton is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the seat and most populous city of the Waikato region, with a territorial population of 169,300, the country's fourth most-populous city. Encompassing a land area of about 110 km² (42 sq mi) on the banks of the Waikato River, Hamilton is part of the wider Hamilton Urban Area, which also encompasses the nearby towns of Ngaruawahia, Te Awamutu and Cambridge.

Retirement

Shewry’s involvement in competitive woodchopping stretched for a period of over 20 years until he retired in 1934 at the age of 45. He purchased a land in Opunake where he farmed for a number of years, and moved to a small farm on Corbett Rd at Bell Block. In 1960, he gifted his competition axes and cups to the Taranaki Museum (now Puke Ariki).

While many environmental activists today consider woodchoppers and timber-fellers of old as nature-hating barbarians, this could not have been further from the truth of Shewry. In later life he became involved with the high profile Pukeiti Gardens at the foot of Mount Taranaki, and was a keen supporter of the Taranaki Rhododendron Trust. His involvement with Pukeiti ranged from weeding and planting to helping design the layout of the reserve. He was described as a tireless collector of rare and good plants as well as an "indefatigable propagator". His own garden at Bell Block was “filled with lilies, bulbs and shrubs”.^[1]

Shewry died at age 73 on 1 August 1962, and was buried at the At. Mark's Church Cemetery, Lepperton Taranaki beside his brother Archie. His friend Rob Hair described him in his obituary as "Ned Shewry, world champion axeman, footballer, bush feller, farmer, plant lover a hard headed businessman, frugal in affairs of his own, generous with those he liked; keen brained, a hard hitter in debate, and the wielder of a sly and devastating wit."^[1]

In his will, Shewry bequeathed to Pukeiti Gardens the bulbs, lilies, shrubs and trees from his garden along with £1200 toward the Summit Road project. He left the whole of his residuary estate to the Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust - with the proviso that "if it could survive for more than 20 years it deserved to have the land."^[1] In 1985 the money from Ned's estate was used to help build a gatehouse at Pukeiti and further expand the gardens. A bar-café opened in Stratford in 1993 was named “Axemen’s Inn” in honour of Shewry.

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References

1 2 3 4 Hoskin, Sorrel (9 December 2005) "A Chip off the Old Block - Ned Shewry" Archived 24 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine .. Puke Ariki Article. Retrieved 23 November 2011

External links

Puke Ariki Article: A Chip off the Old Block - Ned Shewry

An Introduction To Woodchopping New South Wales Axemens Association

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[newtaranakistories-1] 1 2 3 4 Hoskin, Sorrel (9 December 2005) "A Chip off the Old Block - Ned Shewry" Archived 24 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine .. Puke Ariki Article. Retrieved 23 November 2011