The image above shows the cover of the St Saviour’s Orphanage Monthly News for March 1923. The orphanage had a large presence here in Richmond where, from 1910, the St. Saviour’s Home for Girls was located at 73 Stapletons Rd (the site later became Churchill Courts). However the photo on the cover of this issue shows the Boys’ Home which was located in Morgans Road, Timaru. The full 8-page document is available for download below.

The regular bulletin included news from the orphanages and acknowledgements of donations of goods and cash to the orphanages. Both homes relied completely on donations and represented a huge voluntary effort on the part of many people to function. To give an idea of the scale of the operations, the Timaru Home was built in 1918, not long after a new building had been added on the Richmond site. The combined cost of the two projects was £30,000 — equivalent to over $3 million* today(!?) and all from donations. This probably explains the emphasis on the money side of things in this and other orphanage publications.

* Calculated using the Reserve Bank inflation calculator (www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator)

​In August David Grantham donated a set of nineteen Richmond School class photos, taken between 1956 and 1974, the period when David's father, Tom Grantham, was a teacher at the school. As well as ten formal class photos there are three staff groups and several other photos of sports and cultural groups, as well as a few informal photos taken on school outings. I have scanned these photos and combined them in a PDF document which is available below for viewing and/or downloading.

I have recorded pupils’ names underneath each scanned photo. I have transcribed these names as best I can; some of the handwriting is difficult to decipher. If people can help correct any spelling errors, add their own memories or other information about the photos, we would love to hear from you — please contact Avebury House: (admin@aveburyhouse.co.nz).
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Our thanks to David Grantham for his generous gift. The photos are now stored with the Richmond History Group collection in the Richmond Room at Avebury House, along with a wide range other material recording Richmond's history.

This short history (40 pages) of Holy Trinity Church, Avonside, was written for the parish's centenary in 1955 by the vicar of the time, Archdeacon W. T. Williams. I came across a copy in a bookshop some time ago and have scanned it for others to enjoy.

The booklet makes interesting reading...if you're into that kind of thing. We learn, for example, on p21, that the building now known as Chrystal Palace at 12 Chrystal St, was originally St Aidan’s Mission House, an outpost of Holy Trinity Avonside, established after 1912 when Rev. O. Fitzgerald became vicar.

Although the stone church at Avonside was demolished after the 2011 earthquake, the churchyard and cemetery are still well worth a visit. Richard Greenaway has compiled a guide to the cemetery and the many people who are buried there, available on the Christchurch City Libraries website: http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Cemeteries/Avonside/AvonsideParishCemetery.pdf

​David Hollander

Some years ago, it was proposed to have Avebury House registered as a historic place. The Canterbury earthquakes and their aftermath caused some delay, but the process has now been completed and Avebury House has recently been classed as a Category 2 historic place (#9075) by Heritage New Zealand. 

The report below was prepared by Robyn Burgess of Heritage New Zealand as part of their investigations. While there are some overlaps with the two CCC Avebury House documents posted on this site recentl, this report offers a different perspective and brings the official record of Avebury up-to-date.
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List Entry Type: Historic Place Category 2
List Number: 9075
Date Entered: 16th May 2019
Date of Effect: 5th June 2019

Is Slater Street really named after a creepy-crawlie? Who was Warwick? And whatever happened to Bruce? If you have ever wondered why our streets have the names they do, this document might be of interest.

Margaret Harper and other CCL staff have prepared fifteen documents recording information about the names of Christchurch streets. I have copied some of this material and combined the information about Richmond streets in a single document. My thanks to Christchurch City Libraries for their permission to use the information in this way.

If anyone has more information about any of our local streets, please get in touch; contact Avebury House: email: admin@aveburyhouse.co.nz

​​This 21-page document was prepared by Louise Beaumont in 2010 for the Christchurch City Council, and outlines the history and development of the what were once the grounds of Avebury House, now Avebury Park. The report nicely complements the 2000 report on the house itself (available below on this site) and includes several new historical photos of the house and grounds, as well as a detailed look at the landscape elements of the park.
The report’s date, August 2010, makes it a poignant reminder of how much things can change in a short time. Some of the photos show nearby buildings that are now gone. This is another precious document for anyone interested in the story of Avebury House & Park.

​The document below is a conservation plan for Avebury House, prepared in 2000 for the Christchurch City Council Property Unit, by Malcom Kitt and Amanda Ross. For 30 years previously, the house had served as a Youth Hostel (1966—97). For some time after this, the future of the building was uncertain. The house was saved from demolition when the CCC agreed to restore the building. It was not yet decided what uses the building might serve; the report offers a range of possibilities, which included use as a community centre. The 32-page document offers a historical overview and assesses the house’s cultural significance before offering a detailed survey of the building and outlining a conservation plan. 

About this time Avebury House underwent a large-scale refurbishment. In 2001 the Avebury House Community Trust was formed to administer the house as a community resource. The building was officially opened by the then Prime Minister, Helen Clark, on 18 September 2002.

Given the huge changes wrought by the earthquakes of 2010–11, the document offers insight into the thinking and planning that went into saving a vital local landmark, and makes interesting reading for anyone interested in Avebury House.

The photo above shows the old shops on the western side of Stanmore Rd near the intersection with North Avon Rd in the late 1970s. These buildings were demolished soon after to make way for the construction of Richmond Village.

The four-page document below contains transcriptions of two letters written by Roy Burn, proprietor of the North Avon Shoe Store Ltd, 333 Stanmore Rd. Pages 1 & 2 give the text of a hand-written document prepared in 1980. Roy appended a note at the end: “1980 on the opening of the new Richmond Village”. The document provides a potted history of many businesses in the commercial area at the north end of Stanmore Rd, over many years of 20th century. It may help readers locate some of the businesses mentioned in the document, to refer to the 1940 Stanmore Rd map prepared by Noeline Hansen and Shona Ward — see the item “Stanmore Road, Richmond — 1940” below on this page.

On p3 is another letter from Roy Burn about the same time, when the new Richmond Village opened at the corner of Stanmore & North Avon Rds. This letter outlines in more detail the story of the shoe repair business at 327 Stanmore Rd, taken over by Roy Burn’s father, Albert, in 1928 and how this developed into the shoe retail business at 333 Stanmore. This letter and short introduction were printed in the August 2006 issue of the Richmond Community News (Issue 39).

The final page includes a map graphic advertising the North Avon shopping centre and its mix of businesses. This is dated 1972 in a handwritten note on the reverse.

The original documents are housed in the Richmond Room at Avebury house, along with much other material covering the history of the Richmond area. The document was transcribed by David Hollander, July 2018. The transcription has been edited lightly; correcting spelling and punctuation, but otherwise leaving the document as it was written.

Leo Shaw was a long-standing Richmond resident and well known among the community. In the 1990s, Leo made three audio tapes recording his memories of Richmond and surrounding districts over many years — Leo was born in 1914. These audio tapes are in the Richmond History Group collection at Avebury House, along with a number of recorded interviews with local residents carried out by Christine Thieme in 2008–9. It appears that so far, none of this material has been transcribed.
The document below includes a transcription of a talk Leo gave to the Shirley Probus club in 1997. It will be of interest to anyone who wishes to learn about Richmond’s past. The photo below is the only one we have of Leo, as a 15-year old with his mother and father. If anyone knew Leo, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us at Avebury House (email: admin@aveburyhouse.co.nz, phone: (03) 381-6615).