the 1.5 million bricks which were made on site; the remainder were used in the buildings. By 1884, the refinery was operating, and has not ceased its 24-hour operation since. Of the 150 workers who built the refinery, 100 remained to work in it once it was complete; most had migrated from Auckland and settled in the area. Some of the early machinery and equipment was imported from Greenock in Scotland; much of this historic equipment remains on site, providing a rich industrial heritage. Model village As work on the refinery began, the managers and company officers were able to adapt the existing farm cottages on the estate for their use, but the majority of workers lived in tents and temporary dwellings near the building site. This shanty town was replaced by Chelsea Village, which consisted of 35 cottages provided by the company within the grounds, some distance from the existing Birkenhead village. Planned to be a model town, it provided gardens, a church, reading room, school, and shop. However, the village did not remain for many years; the lower houses suffered from dampness and were unoccupied by the early 1890s, and by 1900 it was known as the "barracks" and occupied mainly by single men. In 1905, the village was condemned by the health authorities and the worst of the houses were demolished; the rest were sold and shifted from the site. Some of the relocated cottages can still be seen in the older streets around Birkenhead, and the church, now known as St Peters, was moved to Verrans Corner (a local suburb). Desiring its core tradesmen to remain on site, in case of emergencies, the company built four semi-detached brick houses in 1909 on the site of the old Chelsea Village. These houses remain in Chelsea's ownership, but are now rented to private individuals. For the remaining workers, the company offered inexpensive housing loans, which financed the building of over a third of Birkenhead's new houses between 1910 and 1926, mainly in the streets surrounding the refinery, including Colonial Road (named after the original sugar company) and Huka Road (after the Maori name for sugar). Sugar workers Renowned poet James K Baxter worked at Chelsea as a cleaner in 1969-a job found for him by Hone Tuwhare. Dismissed after three weeks, he wrote the satirical poem "Ballad of the Stonegut Sugar Works" which expressed his unhappiness at the