Canterbury heroes: Picturing Canterbury

Angus Tait, Margaret Mahy and Elsie Locke: Canterbury Heroes.

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Community connections

Twenty libraries across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula is quite a formidable community network and these days they are all fairly humming with activities. Just taking a quick look at our Community Connections for adults programmes will give you the idea. There is a February/July programme well under way and while the bookable courses may be full up, there are always plenty of drop in opportunities to learn computer skills like this one at Central Peterborough Library.

Libraries have always been places of community. Librarians and customers get to know one another, reading suggestions, plants and cakes are swapped and lots of learning facilitated. Post earthquakes this seems more important than ever and these days you can pop in to your local library and find many useful things like Citizens Advice Bureau on site, J.P clinics, craft groups, card groups, book clubs and art displays. Just take a look at our Classes and events calendar.

Recently South Library hosted the Migrant Quilt Exhibition which has become a spectacular annual event and currently Upper Riccarton is hosting an exhibition by Chinese artist Xiao Hong Deng. (runs until May 1).

Soon our libraries will be resonating with dozens of free music events by local musicians for New Zealand Music Month.

Libraries in your community – there is always something going on.

 

The Commerce, Science and Technology Desk: Picturing Canterbury

Adrian Birkbeck (centre) with a customer at the Commerce Science and Technology reference desk in the Central Library. 1982

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The ‘Cutting’ and Withell’s Island

People have been tinkering with the Avon River since the early days of European settlement.  The original  route of the Avon was round Owles Terrace. Sand blocked the channel and it was feared that this might prevent development of commerce, via small vessels, up the Avon. The cutting was started by contractors, McGrath and Brady, and completed by the Canterbury Provincial Council in 1859. The area which was created through ‘the cut’ is Withell’s Island, named after a late owner, Charles Withell (1832-1916). Vessels have never, in any appreciable numbers, come ‘sailing with the tide’.

For many years the ‘cutting’ or ‘island’, with its wildlife, attracted children and at least one boy, Eddie Lawry, was drowned there. About 1910, the New Brighton Borough Council took sandhills, trucked them to the island and filled in the original watercourse.

Tom Gray’s reminiscences contain references to the creation of ‘the Cutting’:A notable undertaking in which he played a part was the making of a cutting through the Avon near the present New Brighton bridge so as to do away with an ‘elbow’ in the river there. This work was put in hand in conjunction with the building of Bricks Wharf at Barbadoes Street, at the time when it was hoped to inaugurate a steamer service up the river to that point ….

New Brighton was a thorough wilderness then, Peter Kerr’s house on the old Brighton Road being the last habitation out in that direction. There were about 50 men employed on the work. The beach was … thickly scattered with whalebones, many of which were for years afterwards to be seen forming bowers and other sorts of decorations in residences in the neighbourhood of the city. There was … timber on the beach which had come down from the mills then working at various points round the coast, and the contract men occasionally made more money selling the whale-bones and the timber than they would in many a day’s work.

Mushrooms also grew thickly adjacent to the river banks right up to the niggerheads, and the swamps round about were smothered with wild ducks. Sea birds were to be seen by the thousands where you will only see an occasional one now ….

Another thing … was the great quantity of frost-fish which were washed up on the beach …. We did not know what they were and thought they were unfit for eating, till … our cook discovered their delicacy as a food. We might have known that they were good for eating … because the gulls were always making meals of them, and these birds, like the rats, don’t go in for the worst of things.

Betty Innes’ handwritten reminiscences of about 1910-20

The river carnivals were held annually. There would be decorated boat and many other attractions and competitions including pillow fight on the greasy pole. The pole was erected horizontally over the river and slightly greased to make it rather slippery and the two contestants sat on this and at the word go began to pelt each other with pillows until one was unseated and fell into the river ….

We used to spend much time fishing … Our usual place was the river opposite Mountbatten Street. On a fine day the river bank there would be lined with fishermen.  We also occasionally fished at Herring Bay ….

The river originally followed the course alongside Owles Terrace,Union Street and Brighton Terrace and the cut through from the Power Boat Club to the end of Brighton Terrace was made some time before we came here but the old river bed was still full of water. Thus an island was formed. This was first used by Mr. Sefton, a local carrier and coal merchant, to run his horse in. One was bogged there and only extricated with great difficulty. Mr. Withell next brought this land and contracted with Mr. Bodger to fill it in. For months there was a small gauge tram track running from the sandhills along Shackleton Street to Union Street and thence to the island. Small trucks of sand were pulled along these by the horses. Many a ride we children had in those trucks.

Sources:

• Brighton standard
• Greenaway, Richard,’ Taming the Avon’, Press, 28 February 1976
• Innes, Betty, ‘Reminiscences’ – held by Richard Greenaway
• ‘The lad from Tipperary’,  Star, 31 May 1919 p 8
• Lyttelton times, Papers past

This information came from Richard Greenaway – an expert on the local history of Christchurch. Some of you might have been on one of his fascinating cemetery tours. He has an eye for a good story and the skill and patience to check and cross check all kinds of references. He has compiled a wonderful array of New Brighton stories.

 

The New Brighton clock tower

The clock tower and the New Brighton Library stand together as distinctive features of the suburb. The story of how the clock tower came into being is a lively one with family and organisational squabbles and even a possible bomb threat.

Richard Edward Green, retired builder, came to public notice in the 1920s when he wrote a long series of reminiscences of early Christchurch in the Star and commented on the recollections which other people sent in. The articles are the basis of the Canterbury Pilgrims’ and Early Settlers’ Association scrapbook held by Christchurch City Libraries and Canterbury Museum.

The New Brighton clock tower was one of three toxic gifts from R. E. Green to the citizens of Christchurch, the others being the Sumner clock tower and the J. E. FitzGerald statue near the hospital.

It was commonly believed that Green had fallen out with his family and that he was hell-bent on cutting them out of his estate by divesting himself of his wealth and paying for the creation of statues and clock towers. Some of Green’s family were in poor financial state, including a son who had been wounded in World War I.

Green stated that the clock towers were in memory of his father, Edmund Green (1829-99) who was involved with the introduction of the telegraph to New Zealand. The city council went so far as to reject the FitzGerald statue which was erected on Christchurch Domains Board land. When the Domains Board ceased to exist, the city council took over its properties, including the FitzGerald statue.

There were rumours that family members would disrupt – even bomb – the ceremonies where foundation stones were laid and items unveiled. Certainly, members of the family wrote letters about Green in which he was described as being given up to all forms of debauchery. He had at least one niece who had only kind words for her uncle’s character.

On 14 December 1934, Irene Leaver, daughter of E. A. M. Leaver (mayor of New Brighton 1931-1935), laid the foundation stone of the New Brighton clock tower. Her friends asked her where she had found the glamorous hunk who escorted her at the ceremony. The answer: “That was my detective.”

The honorary architect was Benjamin Ager who designed the North New Brighton Peace Memorial Hall and St. Elmo’s Courts.

This information came from Richard Greenaway – an expert on the local history of Christchurch. Some of you might have been on one of his fascinating cemetery tours. He has an eye for a good story and the skill and patience to check and cross check all kinds of references. He has compiled a wonderful array of New Brighton stories.

Sources:

Greenaway, Richard, ‘Rocks about the clock’, Pegasus post article, 1977

The library has some great photographs of New Brighton capturing its life as one of New Zealand’s premier seaside suburbs, full of life and character. New Brighton residents have been good at recording their local history and the place has inspired novels and biographies.

 

How green is your mall?

Let’s hear it for mall walking!

“Are you from Milwaukee?” asked the assistant attending to my very early morning coffee needs at a mall near one of my favourite libraries. My brain raced into overdrive – did I look Milwaukeean? Had I in fact been to Milwaukee in this life or a past one and conveniently forgotten?

It was not yet 8:30 – and I could not answer the first question of the day. It looked set to be a challenging twenty four hours. But I got it in the end: “No, I’m not from Mall Walking” I replied, at which my coffee almost doubled in price.

We’re all in the grip of Rebuild Christchurch fever right now. You can’t open The Press nowadays without being hit around the chops with all things green. We want to walk along the Avon, bicycle our thighs into submission and grow vertical gardens.  And the library has the books for you to become something of an authority on this topic:

• Nature All Around Us (A 2013 Guide to Urban Ecology)
• My Green City (Back to Nature with Attitude and Style 2011)
• And my personal pick of the bunch: Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at A Time.

But what about our indoor spaces – how green are they? Winter is on its way and the call of the mall is strong. And this is where mall walking comes in. It’s a popular new trend, with both Northlands Mall and Westfield Mall allowing walkers in from 8am to walk in the safety and comfort of their deserted precincts.

In the interests of local research I joined a Mall Walking Group.  Initially it felt strange to be tramping in such a cavernous space with so many shuttered shops. I allowed myself a James Bond fantasy moment involving Daniel Craig, but was pulled quickly back to earth by the snippets of pensioner conversation that drifted past.

After a few laps I stopped for my legitimately earned reduced-price coffee. I thought how easy it would be to snidely deride the mall walkers. Yet were I in a foreign city watching early morning Tai Chi in a mall, I would be raising my cappuccino in support, whilst penning tetchy Letters to the Editor on the greening of our malls!

But, how about you - how green is your mall and will you be striding through it any time soon?

 

Prudish New Brighton

A gem from the NZ Truth in 1928 – New Brighton was apparently inundated with “pagans from the city”. The photograph below from 1918  shows a group of these “pagans” displaying neck to knee swimwear.

A wowser council

N.B According to the Oxford English Dictionary a wowser is “A Puritanical enthusiast or fanatic; esp. a fanatical or determined opponent of intoxicating drink.”

New Brighton, a beautiful marine suburb … is a painfully pious settlement which produces two religious publications and regards it as sinful to marry the sister of a defunct missus. In the summer months pagans from the city swarm to the seaside to breathe the health-giving ozone and parade the beach in scanty attire. New Brighton is shocked periodically and, last year, made itself the laughing stock of the Dominion by prosecuting the wearers of ordinary swimming costumes. It lost … but is still in the frame of mind which prevents it from seeing that prudishness which sees harm in a swimming costume is mere evidence of prurience. New Brighton was particularly scandalised by the conduct of some shameless ladies with good figures who entered the water in fetching, tight-fitting costumes which are worn on continental beaches and in Australia ….  Notwithstanding the magistrate’s decision, new by-laws have been drawn up to prevent the public enjoying themselves at the seaside

[Both sexes were to wear neck-to-knee costumes and women’s costumes were to be shapeless.]

No bathing costume in any part of the world reaches to the knee …. Girls are to make themselves look as unbeautiful as possible in baggy garments that are a hindrance and vexatious in the water.

NZ truth, 19 January 1928

The library has some great photographs of New Brighton capturing its life as one of New Zealand’s premier seaside suburbs, full of life and character. New Brighton residents have been good at recording their local history and the place has inspired novels and biographies.

This information came from Richard Greenaway – an expert on the local history of Christchurch. Some of you might have been on one of his fascinating cemetery tours. He has an eye for a good story and the skill and patience to check and cross check all kinds of references. He has compiled a wonderful array of New Brighton stories.

 

Bligh’s Gardens

Richard Greenaway is an expert on the local history of Christchurch. Some of you might have been on one of his fascinating cemetery tours. He has an eye for a good story and the skill and patience to check and cross check all kinds of references. He has compiled a wonderful array of New Brighton stories. This one concerns Bligh’s Gardens which operated in New Brighton from the 1880s.

Bligh’s Gardens were established at an area on the Avon below Withell’s Island and on Evans Avenue. They were established as pleasure grounds by John Bligh (1838-96). John was a cook, restaurant owner and temperance hotel keeper. His hotel was near the Salvation Army citadel site in town. He also owned a large property at Blighs Road. When he decided to create the gardens, he brought plants and soil down the Avon in small craft. More detail of John’s enterprises can be read in the story of his hardworking wife Susannah an unsung heroine whose life was recorded by Richard.

Conifers were planted, garden walks laid out, a playing field formed, and house erected. Sailing clubs, families and business groups picnicked at Bligh’s Gardens, while conservationists enthused about how John had made the desert ‘blossom as the rose’.

Susannah was briefly involved in John’s apparent success. In 1885 picnic parties were encouraged to camp at Bligh’s Gardens where ‘Mr Bligh’s family will hospitably provide hot water &c’.

John Bligh had the picnic grounds in 1880s-90s but they were not a financial success. Later owners included the Suckling and Straw families. The land was broken up 1923. A remnant of land, still referred to as Bligh’s Gardens, was in the news last year as the site of the removal of 60 earthquake damaged trees.

NZ truth described John Bligh and his activities.

But it was at Bligh’s genteel boarding house that the corner house and adjoining premises passed through their roaring days. Jack Bligh was an American and one of the best cooks that ever put a pie in an oven; also his first missus was a splendid business manager, a circumstance that had a marked influence on the Bligh fortunes which rose as the years fluttered past.

The reign of the Blighs must have been somewhere between 1862 and ’84 and the name was a household word throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand …. It was the ideal hash house … and was the resort of honeymoon couples for whose convenience special bridal chambers were provided ….

… Poor old Bligh speculated not wisely and with disaster. He bought a fine property at Papanui and Blighs Road perpetuates his memory in that district …. A magnificent scheme of gardens at  New Brighton cost him upwards of three thousand pounds. He even carted soil from the city to make these handsome grounds and the venture about settled him financially. [The second] Mrs. Bligh struggled along after her husband’s failure and death but evil times fell upon her and she … left the historic buildings.

Church register transcript material on the Blighs:

This traces the sad history of John and Laetitia’s children.

Bligh, Susannah Letitia, b 18 March 1871, baptised 18 May 1871, daughter of John, cook, and Susannah nee Owens of St. Luke’s; the parents were the godparents. The Rev. E. A. Lingard of St. Luke’s Anglican church, officiated.

Susannah Laetitia Bligh, 10 months, daughter of John, cook, and Susannah Bligh of St. Luke’s, Christchurch, buried 1 February 1872 in the Anglican section of the Barbadoes Street Cemetery. The Rev. Edward Atherton Lingard officiated.

Theodore Rupert Bligh, born 17 August 1873, baptised 26 December 1873, son of John, lodging-house keeper, and Susannah nee Owens of Whately Road. The Rev. Edward Atherton Lingard officiated. Child died.

Theodore Rupert Bligh, 10 weeks, son of John, restaurant keeper, and Susanna Bligh of Whately Road, buried 6 January 1874 in the Anglican section of the Barbadoes Street Cemetery. The Rev. Edward Atherton Lingard officiated.

Susanna Bligh, 41, residence New Brighton, wife of John Bligh, was buried on 9 February 1888 at All Saints’ churchyard, Burwood.

Bligh, John, 45, widower, gentleman, b Liverpool, residence New Brighton, usual residence New Brighton, son of John, farmer, and Julia nee Donley married 23 May 1888, Holy Trinity, Avonside

Williamson, Kate, 25, spinster, – , b Shetland, residence Christchurch, usual residence – , daughter of John, farmer, and Andriana nee Williamson; witnesses, John Williamson, Olliviers Road, Linwood, farmer; Mary E. Williamson. The Rev. W. A. Pascoe officiated.

Louisa Mary Bligh, b 10 October 1893, baptised 3 December 1893, daughter of John, restaurant keeper, and Kate nee Williamson of Victoria Street. The parents, Florrie Bligh and Mary L. Pursey were the godparents. The Rev. Edward Atherton Lingard officiated at St. Luke’s.

John Bligh, 58, boarding house proprietor, residence Christchurch, was buried on 27 December 1896 at All Saints’ churchyard, Burwood.

Sources:

• Brighton standard
• Church register transcripts, Christchurch City Libraries
• Greenaway, Richard, Unsung heroines, 1994
• Mosley, M., Illustrated guide to Christchurch and neighbourhood, 1891
• Murphy, Michael, ‘Possibilities of New Brighton’, New Zealand country journal, 1891
• NZ truth, 1 August 1908 p 5
• Strongman, Thelma, Gardens of Canterbury : a history, 1984

The library has some great photographs of New Brighton capturing its life as one of New Zealand’s premier seaside suburbs, full of life and character. New Brighton residents have been good at recording their local history and the place has inspired novels and biographies.

 

From Skype to origami – People do amazing things at the library

People do amazing things inside (and outside) the library.

I was talking to a customer at my library yesterday, and he said, “Goodness, look at all those computers! Aren’t libraries supposed to be all about books? What are those people doing here?” Turned out he hadn’t visited a library for a few years, so we chatted for a bit about the changing nature of life, the universe and everything.

After he’d gone, I went for a walk around the shelves, and found all sorts of things going on this customer might raise his eyebrows at. Our libraries today are full of people not just practicing silent reading, but Skyping, typing, playing online games, writing CVs, learning languages, listening to music, watching movies, doing origami, playing chess, knitting, drinking coffee and just hanging out with friends. We have art displays, writer events, and great competitions (The Summertime Reading Club for kids has a photo comp and a colouring comp too). Information is passed along, not just via words on paper, but through e-learning, interactive classes, displays, events, websites, and more.

Not only that, but libraries are hitting the street (and the interwebs). Our new mobile vans are wherever you are in the city, we have e-books and audio books that you can take with you to the ends of the earth, and you can drop into any library and get help with all your informationy needs. Librarians go out to schools, playgroups and community events.  Apparently we even channel our inner librarian on the street – I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked for information/directions/explanations, and I know that it happens to other librarians too. Is it the glasses? Or do we just look like we know everything?

Whatever naysayers might think they know about libraries, let’s keep proving them wrong – let’s keep our buildings full of people doing all sorts of glorious and amazing things, through the 21st century and beyond.

PS.  If you’re interested in finding out about all the things happening in and around libraries, start here with our Events Calendar, and remember to also keep an eye on the website and the blog, check out posters and displays in the library, or even easier – ask your librarian!

 

Destination… Airport

Have you visited your airport recently?

Not for anything to do with travel, but just to hang out. Because the clever airport rebranding folk have come up with The Airport Visit as something to do. Just for fun. I kid you not. Actually, there’s quite a bit to be said for it. More interesting than a day in Sockburn and cheaper than a trip to Phuket, an airport is a bit like a mall with benefits.

But what’s it like to be at an airport with no travel purpose in mind? It certainly enhances the appeal of the book  100 Places You Will Never Visit. But, no matter what, I love airports. Alain de Botton beat me to what could have been my dream job when he landed the position of Writer in Residence at Heathrow for a week. But there’s nothing to stop me from blogging from Christchurch International Airport, so here goes.

You’ll be spoilt for choice insofar as cafés are concerned. I settled myself in with my cappuccino and got right down to my favourite airport activity – people watching: retired travellers endlessly checking boarding passes, harried mothers with overexcited children, cool businessmen praying they don’t get seated next to them on the flight. And weaving their superior way through this mêlée are the pilots, co-pilots and flight attendants. Perhaps not quite a glamorous as the Trolley Dollies in the latest TV series PanAm, but surely free of suspender belts at least!

Air travel is a peculiar beast – lacking the romance of train travel or the languor of a cruise, it has failed to generate a body of literature to commend it. My best find is the evocatively named Airports and Other Wasted Days. But sitting in a terminal, you have to marvel at how much air travel has changed. Time was when people dressed up to fly overseas, like the passenger in this old Christchurch Airport 1950 photo who is wearing furs and a hat and is surrounded by men in suits and uniforms. Now it’s baggy pants and Crocs all the way.

Now I know that a trip to the airport is not going to be an easy option to sell to the kiddies (some of whose friends have parents who are actually going to travel with their children) and I never said  an airport outing would be cheap. All I’m saying is: you too can get that travel buzz, buy chocolate coated “Sheep Dropping” raisins at a Duty Free, smell of three conflicting perfumes, wave to a pilot, misidentify jets to trusting youngsters and do it all on a spectacular caffeine high.

And what’s more, not once in the whole outing will a whining child say to you:

“Are we there yet?”