Castle Hill Hotel, West Coast Road: Picturing Canterbury

Castle Hill Hotel, West Coast Road. File Reference CCL Photo Collection 22, Img02341.

Castle Hill Hotel, West Coast Road [ca. 1890].

The original hotel on this site was built in 1865. It was replaced by another, built by Fred Harris, in 1871. A second storey was added to the building in 1881 and increased the size of the hotel to 28 rooms. It was a favourite stopping place for the West Coast coaches and was particularly renowned for the hot scones and tea it supplied to travellers. Although it was built of stone, the hotel was destroyed by fire in 1904. At this time it was owned by Messrs Fletcher, Humphries & Co. of Christchurch.

Do you have any photographs of the Castle Hill area? If so, feel free to contribute to our collection.

Share your photos and help us to create a true picture of our city’s rich history. Anyone can contribute.

• Visit the Discovery Wall
• View more Picturing Canterbury posts

Find out more

• News report of the Castle Hill Hotel fire, The Press, 18 Oct. 1904, pg 5.
• Coaching days and Accommodating Ways by Vera McLennan

Photo Hunt October: Marshall Family Swimming, 1960s

Entry in the Christchurch City Libraries 2010 Photo Hunt. Kete Christchurch HW10-S-Sp-076 CC-BY-NC-ND NZ 3.0

“Coe’s Ford. Swimming in the river-Sally on Dad’s (Bruce) back. Lynne on the Lilo. Family picnic day.”

Date: Circa 1960.

This image is available as a free postcard as part of our Christchurch Photo Hunt promotion.

Christchurch City Libraries has been running an annual Photo Hunt in conjunction with the city’s Heritage Week since 2008.  The 2016 Photo Hunt is running again from 1 – 31 October. During the month of October we will be posting a series of images from earlier Photo Hunts.

Enter the 2016 hunt online or at your local library.

Kete Christchurch is a collection of photographs and stories about Christchurch & Canterbury, past and present. Anyone can join and contribute.

Photo Hunt October: Southbridge Labour Day Agricultural Fair 1949

Entry in the 2015 Christchurch City Libraries Photo Hunt. PH15-035.jpg CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0 NZ

“Country and city folk get together at the Southbridge Labour Day agricultural fair in 1949.”

Christchurch City Libraries has been running an annual Photo Hunt in conjunction with the city’s Heritage Week since 2008.  The 2016 Photo Hunt is running again from 1 – 31 October. During the month of October we will be posting a series of images from earlier Photo Hunts.

Enter the 2016 hunt online or at your local library.

Kete Christchurch is a collection of photographs and stories about Christchurch & Canterbury, past and present. Anyone can join and contribute.

Digitised Ellesmere Guardian now available

A happy function at Southbridge, the opening of a new recreation ground.

Great news for family historians, students and researchers – more of the Ellesmere Guardian has been digitised and can be viewed online at Papers Past.  This means papers from 1891 until 1945 can now be seen online.

This project has been a partnership between the National Library and Waihora Ellesmere Trust with financial assistance from Lincoln University Library, Christchurch City Libraries, Selwyn District Council, and the Ellesmere Historical Society.
Collated and curated by the National Library, Papers Past includes regional papers from all over New Zealand. Some key features include:

• 63 titles, with more being added regularly.
• Includes New Zealand’s earliest newspapers — the oldest listed is New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, August 21, 1839
• Features full-page and article images plus a powerful keyword search engine.
• Browsing lets you look at all the newspapers, starting with a year, a region, or a newspaper title.

Need a weekend break?

Feeling like a break from earthquake damaged streets and buildings? Why not take a short trip out of town this weekend to the Celebrating Selwyn events or closer to home,  the McLeans Island Vintage Country Fair?

The McLeans Island Vintage Country Fair is a great opportunity to see  steam trains, traction engines and other great vintage machinery in all its rattling, roaring, steaming beauty.  Other treats include Clydesdale horses in action and craft stalls. There is special entertainment for the kids.

Celebrating Selwyn is an opportunity to  visit studios, heritage houses, gardens, restaurants and walkways in the district. There are concerts, exhibitions, a barn dance and other fun events. One of the historic houses which will be open is Gunyah. I can highly recommend a visit. Badly damaged in the September 2010 quake it is now repaired and home to many fine examples of early New Zealand furniture. The collection belongs to William Cottrell, who has written a definitive book on the subject Furniture of the New Zealand colonial era.

Marion O.

Golden wedding lovelies

What a lovely photograph! I’ve been looking through our collection of heritage photos from the Selwyn District and  wedding and wedding anniversary photographs featured regularly. Most were splendiferous lineups of hats and suits but I loved this closeup of  Mr and Mrs George Foster – their character filled faces – and their modest best.

Interesting historical note that they came to New Zealand on the Edwin Fox.

Some other weddings and wedding anniversary groups captured in all their glory – Prestidge, Gillanders/Stark, Paterson/Anderson, Fussell, Kneeshaw.

The collection features photographs of the Selwyn district from the Weekly press and the Canterbury times between the 1860s and the 1920s. They have been produced as a joint project between Selwyn District Council and Christchurch City Libraries. They were photographed from the newspapers by Stephen Wright.

Hurrah for the country life

The Selwyn District collection of heritage photos contains some wonderful glimpses of country life as it used to be. An imposing collection of hats lines up at the annual ploughing match in Waddington in 1909.

Oat stacks as art form. A reminder of skilled farm work.

The collection of photographs of the Selwyn district is from the Weekly press and the Canterbury times between the 1860s and the 1920s. They have been produced as a joint project between Selwyn District Council and Christchurch City Libraries. They were photographed from the newspapers by Stephen Wright.

St John’s Church, Hororata

The Selwyn District Heritage collection has some interesting photographs of St John’s Church at Hororata which was badly damaged in the September 4 earthquake.

The church was consecrated on 27 February 1911. Money to build the church came from Sir John Hall, former prime minister of New Zealand.

Sir John Hall

The old church which was moved to make way for the new stone church. It is still standing today and is being used for worship until the newer church is restored. The photograph was taken on the occasion of Sir John Hall’s funeral in 1907. Children from Hororata School line the path.

The photographs are taken from the Weekly press and the Canterbury times between the 1860s and the 1920s. They have been produced as a joint project between Selwyn District Council and Christchurch City Libraries. They were photographed from the newspapers by Stephen Wright.

Let’s go to the show

Going to the agricultural show has always been an important event for country people – an opportunity to show people and animals in their best finery.

Dalmuir Prince – champion draught horse stands proud.

Stylish show goers.

The photographs are from the Selwyn district collection, taken from the Weekly press and the Canterbury times between the 1860s and the 1920s. They have been produced as a joint project between Selwyn District Council and Christchurch City Libraries. They were photographed from the newspapers by Stephen Wright.