As much as Christchurch wanted its own identity and separation from the old country, some traditions followed the settlers that weren’t ready to die just yet. One of those traditions were balls; the first being held in the Lyttelton Immigration Barracks by the Godleys early 1851. This ball was considered a grand success – that …
“On the east side of Market Place stood Mr. Gould’s General Store with a great barrier in the middle of the floor filled with fascinating coils of rope-like tobacco – fascinating because we thought it was good to having (having I suppose watched sailors and Maoris chewing lumps) till an experimentalising younger brother nearly put …
There would have been no hope for this old ledger if it hadn’t been behind glass at the Canterbury Museum. A ledger of land purchased up to the 30th April 1868 – section numbers, purchaser’s surnames, where and what acreage. Some names just jumped out of the page at me, I was so buzzing that …
As a Management Committee member for the Canterbury Association, I’m sure Henry Le Cren felt a sense of achievement as he made his way down the jetty from the ‘Barbara Gordon” with all his worldly belongings. His cousin John Longden was with him – what an adventure to be in Canterbury, especially with the first …
In 1865, the first meeting of The Canterbury Medical Society was held at The Pegasus Arms which was a well established doctor’s surgery at the time. The early life of what would become The Pegasus Arms began on 1 August 1851 when cousins Henry Le Cren and John Longden purchased section 1049 and opened a …
