Avebury House
  • 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 >
      • Richmond Gala >
        • Richmond Gala 2024
        • Richmond Gala 2023
        • Richmond Gala 2021
        • Richmond Gala 2019
        • Richmond Gala 2017
      • Matariki in the Zone >
        • Matariki in the Zone 2025
        • Matariki in the Zone 2023
        • Matariki in the Zone 2022
        • Matariki in the Zone 2021
        • Matariki in the Zone 2020
        • Matariki 2019
        • Matariki in the Zone 2018
      • Spring Fair >
        • Spring Fair 2022
        • Spring Fair 2020
      • Avebury Xmas Market >
        • Avebury Night Market 2019
        • Avebury Night Market 2018
      • Teddy Bears Picnic >
        • Teddy Bears Picnic 2019
        • Teddy Bears Picnic 2017
      • Wedding Open Day 2018
      • Dementia Walk 2018
  • Newsletter
  • Contact

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.

Short History of the Avonside Parish

6/9/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
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
short-history-of-avonside-parish.pdf
File Size: 25980 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Heritage New Zealand Report: Avebury House, 2019

3/9/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
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 recently, this report offers a different perspective and brings the official record of Avebury up-to-date.
​
List Entry Type: Historic Place Category 2
List Number: 9075
Date Entered: 16th May 2019
Date of Effect: 5th June 2019
avebury_house_report_final.pdf
File Size: 3690 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Richmond Street Names

23/8/2019

0 Comments

 
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: [email protected]
richmond_street_names.pdf
File Size: 1408 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Avebury Park Historical Investigation & Assessment, 2010

17/8/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hubert Flesher in the grounds of Avebury House c.1905. 
Photo from Richmond History Group collection, Avebury House.
​​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.
avebury_park_historical_investigation.pdf
File Size: 3485 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Avebury House Conservation Plan, 2000

14/8/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
"Avebury House c1962. Photo: Barry & Lesley Brown."
​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.
conservation_plan._avebury_house._2000.doc
File Size: 126 kb
File Type: doc
Download File

1 Comment

Richmond School Class Photos, 1898—1934

12/4/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Recently I visited the Christchurch office of Archives New Zealand to explore their holdings concerning Richmond School. Among the items I found were a number of photographs of school classes, sporting teams, and other groups from Richmond School. Thanks to Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Christchurch Regional Office, for their permission to use these photos on our website. I have gathered twenty-six of the photos together with some background information, in the document below.

The date for the photo above is not certain — around 1920. The Primer 6 class is large — 45; 25 boys and 20 girls. Nobody seems to be very happy about having their photo taken!? Several of the other photos show some elements of the school environment and in some cases show nearby houses and other buildings, offering a glimpse of Richmond about 100 years ago.

Most of the photos were taken when the school was on its original site on Stanmore Rd (now Richmond Green). Four were taken in 1926 or later when the school had moved to the site nearby in Cumberland St (now Pavitt St).

by David Hollander


richmond_school_class_photos.pdf
File Size: 16984 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

1 Comment

Businesses of the Stanmore Road North End — a Potted History

2/4/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

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.
businesses_of_the_stanmore_road_north_end-a_potted_history.pdf
File Size: 792 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Leo Shaw’s Recollections of Richmond

14/11/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
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: [email protected], phone: (03) 381-6615).
leo_shaw-richmond_recollections-1.pdf
File Size: 464 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Richmond School Roll of Honour

24/10/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
In April we posted an entry on this page about the Richmond School Roll of Honour. That article posed some questions about the board. After some further research we now have a better idea of board's history. The 10-page document below summarises these findings and tells the story of the Roll of Honour as we know it so far. 

Following the closure of Richmond School at the end of 2013, the Roll of Honour was moved to Avebury House, along with the school's academic honours board and a smaller WW2 memorial. All three items are available for viewing in the Gordon Prince room, downstairs at Avebury House.

If anyone has more information to share about the board or any of the 325 people commemorated there, please get in touch at Avebury House.

David Hollander
richmond_school_roll_of_honour_2019.pdf
File Size: 4369 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

1 Comment

Gerrie's Fruiterer & Confectioner 1927

15/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
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.
gerrie_fruiterers.pdf
File Size: 2815 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    About

    The Richmond History Group is based at Avebury House.

    Archives

    February 2024
    October 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    April 2023
    October 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2021
    January 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017

    Categories

    All
    Avebury House
    Business/Commerce
    Institutions
    Local Families
    Richmond
    Streets
    WW1

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • 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 >
      • Richmond Gala >
        • Richmond Gala 2024
        • Richmond Gala 2023
        • Richmond Gala 2021
        • Richmond Gala 2019
        • Richmond Gala 2017
      • Matariki in the Zone >
        • Matariki in the Zone 2025
        • Matariki in the Zone 2023
        • Matariki in the Zone 2022
        • Matariki in the Zone 2021
        • Matariki in the Zone 2020
        • Matariki 2019
        • Matariki in the Zone 2018
      • Spring Fair >
        • Spring Fair 2022
        • Spring Fair 2020
      • Avebury Xmas Market >
        • Avebury Night Market 2019
        • Avebury Night Market 2018
      • Teddy Bears Picnic >
        • Teddy Bears Picnic 2019
        • Teddy Bears Picnic 2017
      • Wedding Open Day 2018
      • Dementia Walk 2018
  • Newsletter
  • Contact