Here are the foundations of the house built for John Robert Godley, his wife Charlotte, their 3 year old son Arthur and two servants at Lyttelton – not very big huh?
In 1940, this was covered up with a new building for Plunket.
The house was built for Godley in 1850 and in the months following the arrival of the first four ships, they would have had most of the well-known settlers come through their door. It sat near the corner of Sumner Road and Oxford Street.
In fact, in 1852 that Godley’s moved to a spare cottage at Riccarton to take a break from the constant door knocking and the flood of complaints. Godley would travel to Lyttelton every day to work and from Charlotte’s letters home to her mother, it wasn’t uncommon for John to stay in port for days and nights on end.
Charlotte also writes in her letters home how her garden was coming along and how it sat above the Immigration Barracks. It was so great to see and the next block down was the memorial plaque acknowledging that very fact.
*Photo taken by Annette Bulovic*
*image of Godley’s House courtesy of http://www.ccc.govt.nz/ *
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