A Riccarton Ghostly Tale

When one thinks of the Austen Deans – award winning artist, mountaineer, World War II survivor – and the interesting life he crammed into 95 years, one could understand why he was the centre of a ghostly occurrence at Riccarton House that no one can really explain – even today. On the 1st December 1915, …

J.C Watts-Russell (1825 – 1875) & Alfred Creyke (1831 – 1892)

You couldn’t have had two closer friends than J.C. (pictured) and Alfred. The grew up together as their fathers were friends, owned land together, married the same women, travelled together and are even buried in the same cemetery in Upper Riccarton, Christchurch. It’s the land these men owned that puts them on the map…the suburb …

The Ward Brothers

Maybe it had been the tedious bumpy ROADLESS journey over the sea of tussock – from Hawkins (a stone’s throw from Darfield) to Rolleston – that made the farmhand lower the new plough down to harvesting position before he towed it back to Bangor in which he worked. He had been sent out hours before …