William Barbour Wilson – ‘Cabbage Wilson’ (1819 – 1897)

William Barbour Wilson was born in Kirkcudbrightshire in Scotland. He started off his adulthood as a nurseryman’s apprentice. He then moved to Ireland where he worked as an overseer for a few estates there. No one knows why he set his sights on New Zealand next. Maybe it was because New Zealand seemed a certain …

Latters Spur

Latters Spur sweeps across the Port Hills from Te Heru O Kahu Kura (Sugarloaf) to Dyers Pass Road.It was named after Edward Circuit Latter who had numerous roles in the young Canterbury settlement. Edward arrived in Lyttelton in 1851. He was just 22 years old. After spending some time in Lyttelton, he got work at …

Edward Jollie (1825 – 1894)

I’m sure after Edward Jollie had finished surveying (driving pegs into the ground to mark out the roads and sections) the areas of Canterbury that would become Christchurch, Lyttelton and Sumner, he was quite over tussock, flax, cabbage trees and slipping up to his thighs in the swamp that was the Canterbury Plains in 1849. …

George Henry Moore – ‘Scabby Moore’ (1812 -1905)

George Henry Moore was a man everyone loved to hate.He was successful, wealthy, a great land owner, ruled the world around him from his very own mansion (pictured) and had the skills to play Canterbury politics like a chess game and won in spite of being a “…mean, hard-hearted, barbarous, blasphemous man”. He broke all …

The Christchurch Club vs The Canterbury Club

In 1856, 12 gentlemen farmers founded The Christchurch Club. Referred to as ‘The Club’ at first, it started its life in a leased building in Durham Street. Benjamin Mountfort drew up a design for a clubhouse which resulted in the building of their pre-earthquake location at 154 Worchester Street in 1863 – some of the …

Bryndwr Lake

Near the corner of Wairakei and Breens Roads, the Ashby brothers opened the Fendalton Quarry in the early 1900’s. The stones and gravel that now lay in the foundations of many of the roads around Burnside came from this quarry. The main development of Burnside as a suburb took place after World War I. The …