Search results
We may be familiar with the Georgian architecture found in and around Christchurch but what was life like at the time, who were the movers and shakers and what did they get up to? A light-hearted glimpse into Christchurch in the 18th century.
- Useful Links
Christchurch Priory . Christchurch and District Arts...
- Archive
The Christchurch History Society has in excess of 20,000...
- Shop
Christchurch History Society The Porch Room, Priory House...
- 2(H). Highcliffe Castle
In 1977 Highcliffe Castle was purchased by Christchurch...
- 2(F). Christchurch Priory
Christchurch town centre and the Harbour are overlooked by...
- Useful Links
- First Inhabitants
- Early European Contact
- The First European Settlements
- The Canterbury Settlement
- New Arrivals
- Settling in
- Towards Independence
- Canterbury — A Province
- Transport Problems
- The Boom Years
The first people to live in the place now known as Christchurch were moa hunters, who probably arrived there as early as AD 1000. The hunters cleared large areas of mataī and tōtara forest by fire and by about 1450 the moa had been killed off. North Island Māori (Ngati Māmoe and later Ngāi Tahu) arrived in Canterbury between 1500 and 1700. The rema...
On 16 February 1770 Captain James Cook in his ship the Endeavour first sighted the Canterbury peninsula. He thought it was an island, and named it Banks Island after the ship’s botanist, Joseph Banks. It was probably not until 1815 when sailors from the sealing ship Governor Bligh landed that Europeans first set foot on Banks Peninsula. In 1827 Cap...
Captain William Rhodes first visited in 1836. He came back in 1839 and landed a herd of 50 cattle near Akaroa. The first attempt at settling on the plains was made by James Herriot of Sydney. He arrived with two small groups of farmers in April 1840. Their first crop was successful, but a plague of ratsmade them decide to leave. In August 1840 Capt...
In November 1847 John Robert Godley and Edward Gibbon Wakefieldmet to plan the Canterbury settlement. Wakefield believed that colonisation of countries like New Zealand could be organised in such a way that towns could be planned before settlers arrived. These towns would be like a community back in England, with landowners, small farmers and worke...
In December Captain Joseph Thomas, a surveyor, was sent to Canterbury to choose a site for the Canterbury settlement, and prepare for the first settlers. By the time that John Robert Godley, leader of the Canterbury settlement arrived with his family on the Lady Nugent on 12 April 1850, Captain Thomas had built a jetty, customs house and barracks a...
The Deans brothers at Riccarton and the Rhodes brothers at Purau supplied goods (vegetables, dairy produce and mutton). All heavy luggage had to be taken by small boat around to the Estuary and up the Avon to Christchurch. Other lighter luggage was carried over the Bridle Path. The first ‘selection days’ to ballot sections of land in the new towns ...
Within a year eight chartered Canterbury Association ships and another seven privately backed ships had arrived, bringing the population of the settlement to three thousand. Many new arrivals did not stay in town, but moved out onto the plains, where the land was good for sheep and cattle farming. Already Wakefield’s plan for a small farming commun...
Under the new provincial system, Canterbury’s first superintendent was James Edward Fitzgerald, elected on 20 July 1853. During the time he was superintendent, the sale of the back-country runs gave the Provincial Council a regular source of money. Canterbury prospered in these years, with wool exports steadily increasing the amount of money availa...
Because there were still big problems getting heavy luggage from Lyttelton to Christchurch, Fitzgerald tried to get the road to Sumner by way of Evans Pass completed. In 1854 the Provincial Council agreed to give money to complete the road. On 24 August 1857 Fitzgerald finally drove his dog-cart over the road to Lyttelton. It was still a difficult ...
Canterbury’s growing wealth and prosperity during the boom years of 1857-64 had a big effect on the city. More banks opened Christchurch branches (Bank of New South Wales in 1861, Bank of New Zealand in 1862, and the Bank of Australasia in 1864). New Zealand’s first telegraph opened in July 1863 between Christchurch and Lyttelton. The city’s newspa...
Nov 5, 2015 · Fully-illustrated, detailed, and easy-to-read, this week’s free eChart is a helpful timeline for any New Testament study and covers the first 200 years of church history (AD1 – AD 200).
First construction at Stonea Camp. [1] 1651: Sixteen Foot River constructed. [5] 1776: Earliest records for the Surveyor’s Arms (now called The Dun Cow). 1785: The Old Post Office (Syringa House) was built (although it may have been built earlier in 1740). 1830: Christchurch Farm was built.
—1868 The First Vatican Council begins. —1875 The first Keswick Convention meets. —1885 Executions of a number of Catholics and Anglicans, later honored as martyrs, begin in Uganda. —1904 A large revival begins in Wales. —1905 Revival breaks out at Pandita Ramabai’s Mukti Mission in India.
Christchurch sits between two rivers – the Avon and the Stour – and research indicates it began as an early Saxon settlement. It was originally known as Tweoxneam (Twynham) from Old English meaning between two rivers. The town has two entries in the Domesday Book.
People also ask
Who were the first people to live in Christchurch?
How much does it cost to visit Christchurch History Society?
How did Christchurch get its name?
When did the railway come to Christchurch?
Christchurch is a town, civil parish and former borough in the county of Dorset on the English Channel coast, adjoining Bournemouth in the west, with the New Forest to the east. Historically in Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974 and is the most easterly borough in the county.
