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WELCOME TO THE CHRISTCHURCH HISTORY SOCIETY. The Society organises ten evening meetings a year, with talks on topics usually involving local history. It organises visits and guided walks and attends community events. The Society is the custodian of the Christchurch Archive, some 20,000 documents, photos and maps, on which a group of volunteers ...
- Useful Links
Christchurch Priory . Christchurch and District Arts...
- Archive
The Christchurch History Society has in excess of 20,000...
- CHS Website Final
gdpr | CHS Website Final
- 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
We hope to be back online very soon. bottom of page
- 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...
There has been a church on the site of Christchurch Priory for over 1300 years, from the first Saxon building to the glorious Priory Church you can see today. The current building of Christchurch Priory was built in the 11th century, although the medieval roof still exists and is visible above the newer one. The roof includes the Miraculous ...
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Mar 14, 2021 · The first stagecoaches began to run from Christchurch in 1640. Then in 1642 came the Civil War. At first, Christchurch was in the hands of the Royalists but in April 1644 a parliamentary army captured the town. Later that year the royalists made 2 attempts to capture Christchurch. The first time they were driven back.
The first half of the 19th century saw the introduction of the first state schools in Christchurch. The earliest school in the town was founded around c.1140 but this disappeared with the dissolution of the monasteries. Later a free school was established in St. Michael's Loft in the Priory.
Welcome. Please feel free to comment and/or add anything connected with Christchurch History in Pictures, from prehistory to the recent past - old photos of Christchurch England and its surrounding Villages. Christchurch people, artefacts, postcards, or just share your memories of Christchurch. This group now has a substantial collection of ...
Apr 12, 2019 · Read. Fri, 12 Apr 2019. Dan Stirland. Share. On a cool, crisp morning in May 1860, before the settlers of Christchurch stirred for the day, Dr Alfred Charles Barker climbed to the roof of the unfinished Canterbury Provincial Government Buildings and began to take photographs.
