​​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).

These two photographs are part of the local history collection at Avebury House. They show two views, exterior and interior, of Gerrie's Fruiterer & Confectioner on Stanmore Rd. The typed note accompanying these photographs states, “323 Stanmore Rd, 1927”, but Stones Directory gives the address as 325 Stanmore Rd, where George Gerrie had a confectioner’s shop in 1927.

The PDF document includes some more information about the business and the building on the south corner of Stanmore Rd and Avalon St.

This great piece of work, labelled “Richmond Village”, shows the layout of sections along the north end of Stanmore Road c.1940. North is at the right. The stretch of Stanmore Road runs from the corner of Draper St and Swanns Rd to its northern end at the intersection with North Avon Rd. The data was researched by Noeline Hansen and Shona Ward who were very active in the Richmond History Group based at Avebury House in the years before the earthquakes. The map was drawn by Ken Washington. The original document is large: 2500 x 460 mm and is on display in the Richmond Room, upstairs at Avebury House, 9 Eveleyn Couzins Ave.

On the map, residences are coloured pink and commercial properties are blue. Utilities are indicated in yellow. Where the residential occupiers (not necessarily the owners) of the properties have been identified, their names and occupation, if known, have been shown. Businesses show the name of the owner and the type of enterprise. The map makes for fascinating reading. As late as 1940 there are two blacksmiths in this one stretch of Stanmore Rd.

There is a post office marked at 323 Stanmore Rd. This building had previously been occupied by a fruiterer business — there are two photos of this shop dated 1927 in the history group collection at Avebury House. A section is shown as having been set aside for the construction of a post office on the eastern corner of Stanmore and North Avon Rds, but this was never built.

Bruce St used to connect Stanmore Rd and Pavitt St. The roadway still exists as a driveway immediately south of the St. Vincent de Paul building on Stanmore Rd, but sometime after 1954 (Bruce St appears in a Christchurch map of that date), the name was dropped and the road is not marked on modern maps. In 1940, the site of the St. Vincent de Paul shop was occupied by Morgan Davies, a cobbler, with Aldersley’s bakery immediately behind that to the west.

The butcher, Eric McPherson, moved from 321 Stanmore Rd, as shown on the map, to the shop at 75 North Avon Rd (at the north end of Stanmore Rd) in 1940.1

For many years there was a suburban police station at 245 Stanmore, known as Bingsland police station; the name was a carry-over from the earliest days of settlement in the area. The station, which was opened in 1879, retained that name until 1957, when it was changed to ‘North Avon’. The station moved to new premises at 45 North Parade in 1963, but the North Avon station closed altogether in 1968.2


Click on the picture above to see the map in detail.

Notes:
1  Interview with Noeline Hansen (née McPherson), Eric’s daughter.
2  Thomson, Barry, 1989. “Sharing the Challenge — A Social and Pictorial History of the Christchurch Police District”, pp146–7.

Recently I came across a real find, while trawling through a second-hand book stall, as yer do…a copy of the Richmond Primary School centennial celebrations booklet – in mint condition!? The booklet was printed following the celebrations in 1975 and is a gold mine of information about and photographs of the school and its many members over the years.

I have scanned the booklet and the PDF file is available for viewing or download below. This publication complements and updates the 1925 booklet we posted recently. 1975 was a big year for the school in many ways, not least because at the end of the school year the 50-year old two-storey brick building was demolished to make way for a new open-plan classroom and administration block. Hundreds of people attended the centennial celebrations; their names are listed on the last six pages (by decade of attendance) and group photos, again in decade groups, are included. Enjoy…

This auction poster announces the residential development of land along Shirley Rd and Stapletons Rd in 1925. The area north of North Avon Road became part of Christchurch City in 1914 but was still largely farmland at this time.

Judging by handwritten notes on the poster, sales had been brisk; thirty-one of the fifty-one sections have been marked “Sold”. Some things, it seems, never change; real estate developers’ hyperbole for one thing. The sections are advertised as being ‘exceptionally high, well drained, beautiful soil, easily worked, will grow anything.’ Furthermore, they get ‘all the sun that shines.’ Presumably sections in other developments do not!?

The original poster for Jones, McCrostie Auctioneers Ltd measures 570 x 790 mm. The PDF document below has an A4 reproduction and a page of text giving some context to the development.