BUILDINGS AT WORK
Back to
school
Farm buildings once belonging to one of Christchurch’s founding families have come through earthquake and fire to be restored to their rightful places in the community WORDS: DAVID KILLICK
16 Winter 2018
Situated in a leafy Christchurch suburb are a couple of brick buildings that have served a surprising number of purposes over the years: from piggery, stables, and blacksmith’s forge to artillery shelter, woodwork workshop and radio club. And now, thanks to painstaking conservation work and the vision of Christchurch Boys’ High School, the buildings can add upscale uniform shop and museum space to their utility list. Saving the Deans Farm Buildings, however, was a close shave. After the devastating Canterbury earthquakes of 2010-11 and an arson attack in 2016 they were almost lost for good. The buildings were once part of one of Canterbury’s earliest farms. Nearby Riccarton House and Bush, the last remaining stand of lowland native forest in the city, once also belonged to the farm. Before European settlement, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, a subtribe of Ngāi Tahu, knew the land as Pūtaringamotu and in 1843 Scottish brothers William and John Deans established a farm there. In 1851 William drowned when his ship sank en route to Australia. His brother John returned to Scotland where he married Jane
Heritage New Zealand
