Like many other people I am guessing, I have always viewed the south entrance of the Northlands Mall with a bemused question. The mismatched ironwork art piece that adorns the entrance into the mall makes no sense, it didn’t go with the rest of the building. What the…??? The other day, I found myself standing …
Towards the end of the 1970’s, the then waste land that sat south of the Bridge of Remembrance, at the junction of Oxford, Cambridge Terraces and Lichfield Street was a hot topic at the Christchurch City Council. Something needed to be done with it. Even the public were asked for ideas of what to do …
For the Maori, the two rivers that weave throughout the city of Christchurch were not only a food source and a way to travel but the river was a passageway for spirits to move, bringing healing and blessings. The Maori name for the Heathcote River is ‘Opawaho’ and was also the name of the little …
What a grand moment it would have been for the Canterbury Provincial Council to have opened New Zealand’s first Railway Workshops. The year was 1863 and what an achievement for Christchurch! These humble beginnings were replaced in 1879 and were known as the Addington Railway Workshops. In its Hey Day, 2000 men were employed there …
“The entrance to Port Cooper [Lyttelton] is very grand. As we sailed slowly up it, we saw high on the cliffs to our right, the workmen making a road [Sumner Road] to the plains, an undertaking, alas, far too great for our infant colony. Just at the moment we passed a little headland, and there …
“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 …
I’m sure like every other young man at Oxford University, Thomas Jackson (1812 -1886) had big dreams and he was very smart. He graduated with a B.A. in 1834 and an M.A. in 1837. At the young age of 32, Thomas – who was now an Anglican Clergyman – was the principal of the St …
It seems fitting that in the year of 1873, Edmund Spencer not only purchased his own piece of land – at Chaney Corner in the Styx (Redwood) – but he would also celebrate the birth of his son William; this father a true inspiration to his son and these two men together would influence the …
It doesn’t take much imagination to picture the first meeting of The Canterbury Association on the 27th March 1848. The chosen room at 41 Charing Cross, London began to fill with some of the well known names and faces of the British upper class; gentlemen of the church, noble families, rank and money, some of …
It was the odd length and the bars over this grave that made me take a closer look. Makes one think that someone wanted to make sure he stayed in there – they were a superstitious lot back then – but even that madness wouldn’t explain the length. I haven’t seen another grave like it …
