Late 1851, in the middle of a sea of tussock, the Hart family stopped from their trek from Lyttelton and laid all their worldly belongings at their feet. A tent was soon erected and there the Hart family remained. By November 1851, a wooden building with stables was opened as the first hotel in Christchurch …
Upon recognising the historic and cultural value of the 163 year old ‘Grubb Cottage’ of Lyttelton, the C.C.C step in to save the London Street site in 2006. Funds were used for conditions and structure reports, a conservation and restoration plan and a commitment to preserve the “most significant colonial dwelling in Lyttelton” In 1849, …
When English born miller, Daniel Inwood, first heard about New Zealand, he couldn’t have heard it from a closer source than Felix Wakefield. The Wakefield’s had turned the purchasing of land in New Zealand into a grand family business in the form of the New Zealand Company; funding colonisation projects such as Wellington, New Plymouth, …
On the 30th December 1850, surveyor Charles O. Torlesse chained and pegged the first road to the Canterbury Plains – from this point at Church Corner, Upper Riccarton – opposite Countdown. Named Harewood Road, it was from this road that sections began to be sold to the settlers. The term Yaldhurst began to be used …
On the 27th December 1850, the Canterbury Association’s fourth ship, Cressy, sailed into Lyttelton Harbour. She had been at sea for 110 days and carried 155 souls. Unlike the three other ships that were determined to race, the Cressy took her time; seeking more favourable conditions and comfort for the passengers. It also didn’t help …
On the 22nd December 1850, in a loft of the Lyttelton Immigration Barracks, the most Reverend Henry Jacobs took the first Anglican service on land since the arrival of the Canterbury Association settlers. Three more services followed that day, hundreds taking to the ladder as that was the only access to the loft. Planks resting …
On the 17th December 1850, the Canterbury Association’s third ship, Sir George Seymour, sailed into Lyttelton Harbour and dropped anchor at 10.00am. She had been at sea for 100 days and carried 227 souls. Out of the First Four Ships, she had been the last to leave England. Before her journey to Lyttelton in 1850, …
On the 16th December 1850, the Canterbury Association’s second ship, Randolph, sailed into Lyttelton Harbour and dropped anchor at 3.30pm. She had been at sea for 99 days and carried 210 souls. There were 5 deaths and 9 births aboard. This sketch of the Randolph was made by James Edward Fitzgerald (our first Superintendent) from …
In 1838, Captain William Barnard Rhodes forced Canterbury’s first livestock overboard to swim ashore in Akaroa Harbour. In 1840 the McGillivary, Harriot, McKinnon, Shaw and Ellis’ farming party took the first bullocks across what would become Christchurch and in 1843, the Deans brothers populated the plains with its first hoof stock, horses and chooks! But …
On the 16th December 1850, the Canterbury Association’s first ship, Charlotte Jane, sailed into Lyttelton Harbour and dropped anchor at 10.00am. She had been at sea for 99 days and carried 154 souls. There had been 1 birth, 1 marriage, 3 deaths and a disagreement between two passengers where one ended up being ‘socked’ square …
