What Edward William Seager lacked in wealth and breeding, he made up with his humanity and love of a good joke! As the young Seager was making his way into his working life as a porter in a London law firm, he learned of the Canterbury Association and their plans from an old school chum, …
Shipwright John Blair Thompson watched his 11 year old daughter Isabella skip away from him, her happy laughter pouring into his ears. She had every reason to be joyful and excited, the school picnic was a few days away and the whole township of Lyttelton always looked forward to such an event. It was to …
“Having reached the island which Quail Island rises to about 250 ft above the level of the harbour I landed at a shelly beach and ascended the hill in order to correct and complete my sketch. During my walk there I flushed several quail and from that circumstance I gave it the name Quail Island.” …
Here is a great example of why I walk along and read every gravestone I come across. Found this fellow at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Upper Riccarton and his name made me pause for a moment longer. Randolph Theodore Chaney was born on 10th September, 1850 at Bay of Biscay aboard the “Randolph” on …
Mrs. Rebecca Money couldn’t quite believe her ears. She had been wiping down table tops in the dining room of the Victoria Hotel she owned with her husband Charles when she heard the first scream from the street. Confused at first, Rebecca paused before glancing out into the night from the window. An eerie orange …
Eliza Robinson had no idea what to think when loud screaming from the hallway made her look up from her cup of tea. She had been enjoying a hot drink with her daughters and house guest Patrick Campbell in the dining toom when within a moment, her maid Margaret Burke burst into the room, stumbling …
The fact that the MacKenzie Country is named after a famous outlaw and now folk hero shows our Kiwi laid back attitude off beautifully! James MacKenzie (1820 – ?) was a Scot that emigrated to Australia in 1849 – finding work in the gold fields there. No one knows for sure when James arrived in …
Just a year after the first four ships arrived, it came apparent that Canterbury needed a gaol! What was to be a perfect new colony soon was tainted by the nature of man. So Lyttelton Gaol was opened in 1851, designed by Benjamin Woolfield Mountford (also designed the Cathedral and Museum) and built by the …
Just a year after the first four ships arrived, it came apparent that Canterbury needed a gaol! What was to be a perfect new colony soon was tainted by the nature of man. So Lyttelton Gaol was opened in 1851, designed by Benjamin Woolfield Mountford and built by the prisoners themselves. Prisoners also made the …
