Rutherford: Brightwater’s brightest son
After a 20km easy cycle south from Nelson, I was ready for sustenance. Brightwater – complete with cafes – makes for a convenient stopping place.
This week’s column is about a settlement that is home to about 2000 people.
Originally named Spring Grove, the settlement was renamed Brightwater because of the clarity in the adjacent Wairoa River.
While stopped, I learnt more about its famous son – Sir Ernest Rutherford.
Often called the father of nuclear physics, Rutherford was born in 1871, the fourth child of twelve born to James and Martha Rutherford. He died some 66 years later as the Right Honourable Lord Rutherford of Nelson, and one of the world’s most illustrious researchers.
Rutherford was given the honour of burial in Westminster Abbey, near Isaac Newton and other famous British scientists.
Rutherford appears to have had a typical rural New Zealand childhood.
His father had little education and struggled to support the large family, so they shifted several times; first to nearby Foxhill for farming and railway construction, then to Havelock for flaxmilling, and finally to Taranaki for flax-milling again.
At age 10, while at Foxhill School, Rutherford received his first science book.
Perhaps it was this book which inspired him to choose a career in chemistry and physics. He then won a Scholarship to Nelson College, where he boarded for the next three years.
Rutherford was head boy (the Dux of the school, hence his nickname ‘quacks’), played in the rugby team and won one of the ten scholarships available nationally for university study.
The rest you probably know. For his research into the chemistry of radioactive substances, Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908. He made outstanding contributions to science, including the nuclear model of the atom, and was the first to split one. Rutherford’s discoveries are still used in modern physics, and his work became the basis for constructing the Large Hadron Collider.
An inspiring leader, Rutherford steered many future Nobel Prize winners towards their achievements.
He was also a team player, and the success achieved at whichever laboratory he was leading owed much to his skill in drawing together contributions from colleagues.
In the ‘top of the south’ we quite-rightly celebrate Rutherford in many ways. A memorial statue to him is erected near Brightwater, where Lord Rutherford Road meets State Highway 6.
There are also many buildings that bear his name: Rutherford House, a boarding house at Nelson College; and Rutherford Hotel, Nelson’s largest hotel. Rutherford Street is a major thoroughfare in central Nelson.
There are other memorials: Rutherford Park sports ground in Nelson, the Pickering-Rutherford Memorial in Havelock, and Rutherford’s image is on the reverse of the New Zealand one hundred-dollar note.
My musings on Rutherford meant that I didn’t have time to delve into Brightwater’s other offerings.
I had cycled past many vineyards, where the leaves are in full splendid autumn colour. I noted that Brightwater Vineyards has a wine named for Lord Rutherford, which might be just the treat for my next visit.
I also passed up the opportunity to check out Royce McGlashen Pottery, or the Spig & Fern Tavern and a couple of interesting looking shops.
Back on my bike heading home, I had plenty to think about. I wondered if I had absorbed Rutherford’s brilliance by breathing the same air and looking at the same hills that he had during his early years.
Finally, I made a mental note that for my next outing, I must allow more time and bring bike pannier bags for purchases.