Sandcastles in the Sand

Summer is well and truly here so grab your bucket and spade…and spray bottle, masonry trowel, spatula, and books on sandcastle building and get down to the beach because you could carve out a sand sculpture at the Fourth New Zealand Sandcastle Competition! The competition is being held at New Brighton beach (right by New Brighton Library) on 7 February 2015. Also, buy yourself a beach bag, sounds like you’re going to need it for all that equipment.

While you’re at the competition, come in and visit the friendly folks at New Brighton Library and check out some fiction related to sandcastles. If you require some musical inspiration for your sandcastle efforts, Robin Sparkles sings the titular song of this blog.

  

For some pics from other Sandcastle competitions (including an alien crash on Easter Island) check out our Flickr album.

 

On the beach: Picturing Canterbury

New Brighton beach at Christmas [1927]

Explore our sampler of Christmas photographs from our collection. We also have images of the Hay’s Christmas Parade.

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Memories of Moorhouse

New Brighton beach used to host  motorcycle racing. On 22 March 1907 a tragedy marred the racing. The motorcyclist involved was William Barnard Rhodes Moorhouse who had an interesting bicultural heritage and went on to become the first airman to win a Victoria Cross in World War I. A daredevil with motorbikes, cars and planes, the New Brighton crash wasn’t the only fatality he was involved in. The NZ Truth newspaper reports reflect the attitudes and language of the time:

In a 1913 story headlined “A curious cable”:

Grim memories … were aroused in Christchurch when the local dailies printed this cablegram: London 29 January
W. H. R. Moorhouse, the aviator, was fined 20 pounds for Criminal negligence. While motoring, he killed a farm labourer.… Moorhouse… is … William Barnard Rhodes Moorhouse, who started his sanguinary career … on 22 March 1907 when, 19 years of age, accidentally it was held, he killed a boy of seven …Frederick … Gourlay, on … New Brighton beach. He was making a speed trial of his motor cycle … when the child was … bumped into the next world. Moorhouse … charged with manslaughter and committed for trial … was the son of wealthy … parents and the Grand Jury, acting up to the disgraceful traditions of grand juries in Christchurch, protected one of their own … and insulted the lower court by bringing in ‘no bill’.

…. The police were prompt in laying a fresh information …. The magistrate [was] satisfied that there was a prima facie case …. At the August sittings of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Chapman devoted the greater part of his address to the Moorhouse manslaughter case ….The Grand Jury brought in a true bill and the young man had to stand … trial like any common person although he had the best brains … that money could buy. Skerrett K. C.. had with him barrister Wilding for the defence.

… The beach had been used, with the acquiescence of the New Brighton Borough Council, for … motor bike races …. A young man named Ritchie shot past with the speed of as meteorite escaping from its creditors and Moorhouse followed ….Gourlay, apparently transfixed with terror, was biffed into Kingdom Come.

Lawyer Skerrett … let … loose in a remarkable address to the jury who were asked if … Moorhouse were to start his manhood with the brand of Cain on his brow which … would give his enemies … an opportunity to point him out as a convicted felon. Moorhouse … would some day take the responsibilities of a rich man …. If he had been a poor man’s son, it wouldn’t have been thought necessary to have proceeded with the charge against him ….   The jury … returned a verdict of not guilty ….

At the time of the accident, NZ truth had written:

Moorhouse is a beardless youth who isn’t long out of the Old Country and is related to Dr. Moorhouse, the well-known Christchurch medico …. The doctor went bail for the youngster …The father of the deceased … Arthur Lansdown Gourlay … is a draper’s assistant …. He admitted in the box … that Moorhouse had acted in a sympathetic and honourable manner…. from which it may be inferred that the parents of the deceased have been compensated for their sad loss.

William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse (1887-1915) was the grandson of the fabulously wealthy William Barnard Rhodes (1807-78), one of the pioneer Rhodes brothers. His grandmother was Maori woman, Otahi. William’s mother, Mary Anne Rhodes, fought for her inheritance and became one of the richest women in New Zealand. W. B. Rhodes had married Sarah Ann Moorhouse and, in 1883, Mary Anne married her stepmother’s brother, Edward. Mary Anne and her husband went to England where their children were born.

William spent most of his life in England. He was a pioneer aviator and, in World War I, joined the Royal Flying Corps. He was wounded by ground fire when dropping his 45 kg bomb on a railway junction in Belgium. He limped back, coming under further ground fire. He reached his base, landed, insisted on making his report, was removed to hospital and died.

Sources:

• ‘A curious cable’, NZ truth, 8 February 1913
• ‘Dancing in the sky’, Maori television broadcast, 25 April 2011
• Harper, Glyn, In the face of the enemy, 2006
• McLintock, A. H., An encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 1966
• ‘Murder by motor’, NZ truth, 30 March 1907 p 6
• ‘Personal pars’, NZ truth, 13 April 1907 p 1
• Rice, Geoffrey, Heaton Rhodes of Otahuna, 2001
• William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse Wikipedia entry

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.

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.

Time, tide and the quest for the perfect sandcastle

If there is anyone to blame for my quest for the perfect sandcastle, it is Dad. When we were children, he dug a long jump pit and filled it with sand for his second daughter and he gave his youngest daughter a bucket and spade for Christmas. I spent a lot of time in the long jump pit trying to make the perfect sandcastle. The theory was simple, fill the bucket with sand and up-end it  for a perfectly formed bucket shaped castle. However the sand would never come out of the bucket in a beautiful castle shape, it was usually a collapsed heap. It would take a vast amount of sculpting and spade patting before I could sit back and admire my castle.  A few minutes later it would be raked over so big sister could practice long jump.

A seaside holiday was sandcastle heaven, The sand was wetter than what I had at home. The bucket worked and with a bit of sculpting, huge castles were created, with a driftwood drawbridge, scallop shell windows and a moat. Sadly time and tide can destroy a sand castle even when a wet dog can’t.

Recently I made two important discoveries.

1. The library has books on how to build sandcastles.
2. The Inaugural New Zealand Sandcastle Competition will be held on Saturday 21st–Sunday 22nd January 2012 at New Brighton.

Registration for the competition is now open. The Sand Sculpturing Competition for Adult Teams and Individuals is on Saturday. The “Kids-N-Kastles” Children’s Sand Sculpturing Competition and the Family Teams Sand Sculpturing Competition Fun Day is on Sunday.

If I borrow a library book and find my old bucket and spade, should I join in or should I take photos?

Christmas on New Brighton Beach- Image of the Week

New Brighton beach at Christmas, 1927.

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Warm thought for a cold day – Image of the week

Sunbathing at New Brighton beach, Christchurch. January 1, 1919.

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Summer Beach Reads

With the cool sea temperatures so far this year it may be more inviting to dip into a book at the sea-side than dip in your tootises. A good beach read needs grab your attention and be quick enough to read before the sunscreen wears off and drag you off to a summer idyll. For a haul of books to take down to the beach try our selection of beach themed reads and get some sand between their covers :

If you’re not sure what to read next subscribe to our e-lists subscribe now to be in the know of hot new titles coming into the library.

And tell us what you like to read at the beach …

Image of the Week

Senior 6-man teams at Canterbury Surf Life-Saving Association’s third carnival at North Beach, 4 Feb. 1962

File Reference: CCL-KPCD-11-028
From the Canterbury Progress League Archives, Christchurch City Libraries Archive 72

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