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Riccarton Road Opens – 21st June 1851
On 21st June 1851, Riccarton Road (or Harewood Road as it began as a route to Harewood Forest in Oxford as it was then known) was opened. Those who visited Riccarton during the beginning of 1851 spoke of the constant noise of the sawyers cutting down the Canterbury Association’s allocation of Riccarton Bush – sadly …
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The First House In Rangiora Is Built – April 1851
“[Thomas] Cass, [John Cowell] Boys and I have brought 43 heads of cattle and I am going out to Rangiora Wood to manage and take charge of them. I hope to have plenty of leisure to make a home and garden. I have rented 1,750 acres of pasturage for about £14 per year…as soon as …
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First Burial At Barbadoes Street Cemetery – April 1851
On 20th December 1850, just a short four days since the arrival of the Canterbury Association first ship, Isabella Williams and her seven children gathered around the first grave to be dug at Lyttelton’s Anglican cemetery. Her husband John had been found on the Lyttelton side of the Bridle Path, dead from a stroke and …
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First European Child Born In The City Of Christchurch – 15th March 1851
As little Sarah Elizabeth Barker was being born during the darkness of night, her mother Emma held an umbrella over them both in a vain attempt to keep away the driving rain. A terrible storm raged overhead and Emma’s husband Dr. A.C. Barker tended to her, delivering his first and only daughter into the world …
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