One can easily imagine the hard decision it was for Jane Deans to approve the demolition of the old Deans/Manson/Gebbie’s barn in 1897. It was after all, the very roof where her dearly departed husband and his late brother had laid their heads to rest over 50 years earlier, when the Riccarton she so loved …
“…unusual fatigue, to which, in his praiseworthy endeavors to find a suitable spot on which to locate his family, the deceased had exposed himself…” The Lyttelton Times January 1851 John Williams was painfully aware that he, his wife Isabella and their 7 children only had a few days of grace at their first Canterbury lodgings …
“…the land commonly known as Hagley Park, shall be reserved for ever as a public park, and shall be open for the recreation and enjoyment of the public…” and boy, have we Cantabs expected this law passed by our Founding Fathers in 1855 to be upheld and respected today or WATCH OUT! From the beginning …
Over 700 settlers flooded into Lyttelton between the 16th and the 27th of December 1850 from our First Four Ships. Although many public works had occurred to get the port as ready as it could be, the new immigration barracks would in no way be able to house everybody. It was so bad, some took …
After reading about Sir William Fox and getting the idea that he tended to go where the wind took him, I can’t ignore the fact that today, we do not have a clear idea of what William was really like. The descriptions of his personality and values go from one side of the scales to …
On the 27th March 1848, the day the Canterbury Association was founded, the dream that was to become Christchurch was born. Although at the time, the Port Cooper (Canterbury) Plains was just one of the options, by the month of December, it was almost a certainty. All throughout 1848, Canterbury Association surveyors began to replace …
Tommy Cass knew life’s ups and downs. By the time he was surveying the 33,000 acres that would become the Deans’ future rural station of ‘Homebush’ in 1851, Tommy had earned the respect and admiration of all those around him. You get the feeling that he walked along with a great confidence and self knowledge …
A lovely painting of ‘The Bricks’, an area along the Avon River, by the corner of Barbadoes Street and Oxford Terrace. A memorial now stands there which was erected in December 1926 and it is mostly forgotten. Named ‘The Bricks’ by the Deans in 1843 – it was here that they left the bricks for …
Over the years of 1848 to 1851, the poor old Canterbury Plains and the Harbour of Lyttelton seemed to hop from one foot to the other as the Chief Surveyor Captain Joseph Thomas amongst others scratched their heads over a few name options. When Captain Thomas arrived on our shores, Lyttelton was known as Port …
Just like Lake Tekapo’s acknowledgement to the working sheep dog – who has been at the Mackenzie Country farmer’s side for well over a 150 years – Christchurch has chosen to honour the horse as the animal that helped tame the Canterbury Plains and who worked tirelessly along side our pioneers. “One of God’s Greatest …
