I have been on the lookout for a copy of the Shirley School 50th Jubilee Booklet for some time, but they are hard to come by. Thanks are due to John Hickling, who has loaned us his copy of the booklet for scanning and adding to our website — a PDF version is available for reading/downloading below.
​
The booklet was published to accompany the school’s jubilee celebrations held in early 1966, and includes a brief account of the school’s history since opening in 1916, on its site on the south side of Shirley Road, between Chancellor and Slater streets — opposite the site of today’s Shirley Primary School.

The opening of a new school on this site in 1916 is evidence of a growing population in north Richmond and surrounding areas; in that first year the school roll was over 700!? The school moved from the old site to a larger space on the north side of Shirley Road, probably in the 1970s — does anyone know the exact year? The old brick school building became a community centre and the grounds a local park, until the Canterbury earthquakes, which destroyed the old building. The park is still a local gem and includes several fine mature trees. The CCC has plans to build a new community centre on the site in the future.

It’s good to be able to make this publication readily available. If anyone has photos or other information about the old Shirley School, we would love to hear from you — please contact Avebury House.

David Hollander
July 2023

When Richmond School closed at the end of 2013, several of the school’s taonga were moved to Avebury House for safe-keeping. These items included the school’s honour board, along with the WW1 Roll of Honour and WW2 memorial plaque.

The document below tells the story of the Richmond School honour board and records the names of more than 100 of the school’s pupils who won scholarships or achieved other academic distinction at the school. My original idea was to include biographical information about these people, but this has turned out to be a longer-term project, so I have decided to post this document as a first step in telling the honour board’s story.
​
David Hollander
Richmond History Group
October 2022

​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).
​
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.

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 is a bit of a find! We do not have a copy of the 1925 Richmond School Jubilee booklet in our collection at Avebury House - nor is one available in the Christchurch City Library, but I have been able to reproduce the booklet from a mixture of material supplied by Beverley Evans: old photocopies of some pages and digicam copies of others. The result is that we can read the 17-page document in full, nearly — we just don't have a copy of the cover!?

And there is some fascinating reading; a detailed description of the original wooden school building on Stanmore Rd (on the site of what is now Richmond Green), along with information about early staff and reproductions of some wonderful old photos.

1925 was the year the school moved from the old Stanmore Rd site to a new purpose-built facility in Cumberland St (now Pavitt St). There is a photo of the brand-new two-storey brick building that would house the school for fifty years, as well as a photo of the school's Roll of Honour in its original form. The Roll of Honour Board is now located at Avebury House — see an earlier post on this page.

Our thanks go to Beverley Evans for sharing archival material with the Richmond History group.

The Richmond Community News was first published in later 2002. One of the features of the newsletter in the years before the earthquakes was the high number of local history articles, especially a series of items about older houses in the area.

Richmond is unusual amongst older Christchurch suburbs in that very little has been written, and even less published about the history of the area, so these articles represent a treasure trove for people interested in the development of the area.

The back catalogue of the Richmond Community News is now available online (www.aveburyhouse.co.nz/newsletter.html). The link below leads to an index of the history-related articles in the issues between 2003–2011. This 9-page document may help people find a particular article more quickly than reading through all the back issues. The index is simply a chronological list starting with issue #2 (February 2003), giving the title and page number of any history-related articles, up until issue #86 (February 2011).