‘What A Strange Person’ – Captain Joseph Thomas

“You know what a strange person [Captain Joseph]Thomas is; and though [John Cowell] Boys and I received a handsome testimonial from him on the occasion of our discharge he has followed up the injury of disappointing us by constant snubbing and insulting conduct. However, we have restrained ourselves, taken everything quite coolly, and been careful …

GODLEY HEAD – Captain Joseph Thomas (1803 – ?)

What actually inspired me to do the story of Godley Head was the old Maori term for the place, ‘Otokitoki’ which means ‘a place of axes’. My imagination was instantly stirred, but it proved to be one of the biggest anticlimaxes since I began to peel back Canterbury’s history almost 3 years ago. Standing like …

THE BRIDLE PATH

The Bridle Path symbolizes a lot of different things to many different people.  As a Canterbury historian, my heart jumps in my ribcage every time I see it and I am not even a descendant of a family that walked over it 150 years ago.  My British parents and older brothers would make the same …

Christchurch’s First Christmas ~ 1848

On the 27th March 1848, the day the Canterbury Association was founded, the dream that was to become Christchurch was born.  Although at the time, the Port Cooper (Canterbury) Plains was just one of the options, by the month of December, it was almost a certainty. All throughout 1848, Canterbury Association surveyors began to replace …

Thomas Cass (1817 – 1895)

Tommy Cass knew life’s ups and downs.  By the time he was surveying the 33,000 acres that would become the Deans’ future rural station of ‘Homebush’ in 1851, Tommy had earned the respect and admiration of all those around him.  You get the feeling that he walked along with a great confidence and self knowledge …

St George’s Chapel, Barbadoes Street Cemetery

Today, all that marks where the St George’s Chapel (pictured) stood in the Barbadoes (should have been spelt Barbados – a 1849 typo that wasn’t corrected) Street Cemetery is a large plaque with a grave map and an acknowledgement to all that were buried there without ceremony or marker. Barbadoes is considered to be Christchurch’s …

What’s In A Name?

Over the years of 1848 to 1851, the poor old Canterbury Plains and the Harbour of Lyttelton seemed to hop from one foot to the other as the Chief Surveyor Captain Joseph Thomas amongst others scratched their heads over a few name options. When Captain Thomas arrived on our shores, Lyttelton was known as Port …

The Zig Zag – Sumner Road

As James Edward Fitzgerald sat in his over-sized dogcart while it was being transported across the Heathcote River by punt – he was feeling quite exhausted with Christchurch. He was fast approaching the end of his term as Superintendant and his health and temper would improve much due to that very fact. Beside and behind …