BECKENHAM LOOP – Otautahi, Ihutai and Opawawaho

The Beckenham Loop is a part of the Heathcote River that sits south of Fisher Ave and east of Colombo Street.  It once was known as the intersection between three ancient Maori areas – Otautahi, Ihutai and Opawawaho. Otautahi is now known as Governor’s Bay and means ‘The place of one daughter’.  Over 300 years …

BECKENHAM – Captain Stephen Fisher (1820 – 1897)

Stephen, his brother James (pictured) and James’ wife, Harriet, arrived in Canterbury on the Charlotte Jane, the first of the first four ships in December 1850. When James married Harriet, her father brought the pair 100 acres of the new Canterbury settlement. Stephen followed suit by purchasing a further 100 acres neighbouring his brother’s land …