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Richmond History Group

The Richmond History Group is based at Avebury House. The group maintains a collection of books, photographs and other memorabilia illustrating and recording the history of Avebury House and the development of the surrounding suburb of Richmond. We seek to expand the collection and have begun a project to digitise items from the collection and make them available online. This is a work-in-progress and we will be adding items to this site from now on.

If you have photographs or other material concerning Richmond’s past, we would love to hear from you. Perhaps you would like to donate items to the collection, or allow us to view the material and if suitable, borrow items for recording and adding to our digital archive. We would of course return the items to you in the same condition as we received them.

If you would like to learn more about the group, or become involved, please contact Andrea at 381-6615.

Hand-drawn Map of Richmond in 1890

20/10/2021

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Don'tcha just love old maps? And this one's a beauty — a hand-drawn map of Richmond in 1890. The map was prepared to accompany a report on Richmond for the Christchurch City Council, after Richmond people had successfully petitioned to join the city. The map is included in the CCC minutes for 7 July 1890.

At this time Richmond included only the area south of North Avon Road. The street layout is quite recognisable today, although some of the names have changed. (A document explaining the names of Richmond streets is available elsewhere on this website: 
www.aveburyhouse.co.nz/richmond-history-group/richmond-street-names).
​On the map, the waterway that caused the curves in London St is clearly marked. A small part of this waterway is still visible above-ground on Gowerton Place, behind the New World supermarket. The rest of the creek has long since been piped underground.
​

Several other old maps of Richmond and surrounding areas are on display in the Richmond Room at Avebury House.
ccc_richmond_map-1890_a4.jpg
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A Snapshot of Richmond — 1890

19/10/2021

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About 18 months ago I prepared a document, "A Snapshot of Bingsland, 1879" (www.aveburyhouse.co.nz/uploads/4/7/2/0/47203855/snapshot_of_bingsland-1879.pdf). That document listed residents of the area that would soon become Richmond, taken from Alfred Buck's Suburban Dictionary, 1879.
 

To tie in with our display for the 2021 Beca Heritage festival, I have prepared a similar document "A Snapshot of Richmond, 1890". This document lists Richmond residents taken from Wise's Suburban Directory of that year — when Richmond people petitioned to leave the Avon Road Board and join Christchurch city. 

Comparing the two documents you can see how our little neck of the woods had moved from a rural outpost to a suburban community on the edge of Christchurch.

​As well as the list of names and addresses, I have included information on people's occupations, where available, and have also added some contemporary newspaper articles, which show some of the hot topics for Richmond people in the 1880s.

David Hollander
October 2021
​
snapshot_of_richmond-1890.pdf
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1890 — Richmond Joins the City

19/10/2021

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For the 2021 Beca Heritage Festival, the Richmond History group took our festival display theme as "1890 — Richmond Joins the City".

At the beginning of 1890, Richmond lay outside the Christchurch city boundaries. Since the very beginning of Christchurch, these boundaries were the four town belts — now the four avenues. 

In 1890, Richmond formed part of the Avon Road Board's area. Road boards had been established in Canterbury by the provincial government in 1864. Their name indicates their primary function, but most road boards soon became involved, willingly or not, in a wide range of local government activities. The Avon Road Board managed a large area, between the Avon and Waimakariri rivers. Most of this land was rural, but by the 1880s, a few areas close to the city, like Richmond, were becoming more suburban in nature. People living in these areas were becoming dissatisfied with the services (or lack of them) that the road board could provide.

In late 1889, three Richmond men: Joseph Broadley (a baker), David Cochrane (a painter & decorator) and Walter Langford (a carpenter & undertaker), organised a petition circulated amongst the residents of Richmond, asking for the suburb to become part of the city of Christchurch. The petition is now preserved in the collections of Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga. 
​
In the document below you can read about the petition and the men who organised it, as well as see who signed it. When Richmond did become part of Christchurch city on 30 May 1890, it was the first extension of the city beyond the original town boundaries.
richmond-petition-1889-90__1_.pdf
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  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Trustees
    • Vision and Mission
  • History
    • Avebury House History
    • Richmond History Group
  • Room Hire
    • Rooms
    • Rates
    • Booking
  • What's On
    • Classes and Groups
    • Past Avebury Events >
      • Matariki in the Zone 2021
      • Avebury Gala 2021
      • Matariki in the Zone 2020
      • Avebury Night Market 2019
      • Teddy Bears Picnic 2019
      • Matariki 2019
      • Avebury Gala 2019
      • Wedding Open Day 2018
      • Avebury Night Market 2018
      • Matariki in the Zone 2018
      • Dementia Walk 2018
      • Teddy Bears Picnic 2017
      • Avebury Gala 2017
  • Newsletter
  • Contact