Preserving history for future generations

The park is home to several buildings of historical significance. Ferrymead Heritage Park general manager, Vanessa Hale, says several of their buildings have been reassembled at Ferrymead after being moved from their original homes.

“Curragh Cottage is a two-storey cottage built from a kitset in England and brought out by ship in the 1850s.

It was the home of Christchurch’s first town clerk, George Gordon, who named it after the racecourse near where his family lived in Ireland. It was then brought from its original suburban site in Holly/Springfield Road in Christchurch to Ferrymead in 1972,” Vanessa explains.

Meanwhile, the Kinsey Cottage was moved to Ferrymead in 1970. It was the cottage of Sir Joseph Kinsey and sat at the back of his “Wirimoo” property in Papanui Road.

Vanessa says Sir Joseph Kinsey was a merchant for Antarctic expeditions and regularly met with explorers in the cottage.

“The building is believed to have been used as a dark room by Herbert Ponting, photographer to Captain Scott’s second expedition of 19111914,” she says.

Ferrymead is also home to the Sumner Bus Shelter and the Ellesmere Methodist Church.

The Sumner Bus Shelter, built in 1924, was dismantled stone by stone in 1983 prior to its shift and reassembled at Ferrymead.

Vanessa says the original Ellesmere Methodist Church in Leeston was built in approximately 1911. Now, it’s used for weddings.

Vanessa says Ferrymead’s octagonal tea kiosk was the first building to be constructed entirely to metric measurements in Christchurch. It was opened in 1973 in Ferrymead.

Ferrymead isn’t the only place in Canterbury containing buildings steeped in history. DOC are proud preservers and educators for many historic buildings.

Many of these historic buildings outside of Christchurch city highlight Canterbury’s massive involvement with sheep farming and sheepherding.

From high county mustering bases to full shearers quarters, Canterbury is full of farming history which is highlighted in its historic buildings.

In 1935, the Bealey Spur Hut was built by Walter Taylor and Harry Faulker, owners of Cora Lynn Station. It was used as a base for Cora Lynn’s high counter muster which grazed up to 6,000 sheep.

DOC says use of the hut for mustering ceased when the land was returned in 1978 and added to Arthurs Pass National Park.

Now, it is a popular destination for day trips and overnight accommodation. It’s a beech sapling framed; corrugated iron clad hut with an earth floor.

DOC manages the Hakatere Station buildings which were one at the heart of high-country life in the Ashburton Gorge. These buildings were part of Hakatere station and housed the shearers and musterers who worked there. The stone cottage, which is part of the collection of buildings, may be the oldest building in mid-Canterbury.

It was built in 1862 and was known as the head shepherd’s cottage until around 1892 after which it became known as the “married quarters”.

DOC says the cottage wasn’t always lived in. “At one stage it was a post office for the area and it was later used for storage. The mutton chiller was the only room in the building that was in constant use until the mid-1970s.”

DOC also have involvement with historic buildings of different significance – ranging from early tourism to wild animal control initiatives.

Cotons Cob Cottage Historic Reserve is a great example of this. According to DOC, Cotons Cottage and the surrounding land were gifted to the Crown in 1974 for an historic reserve.

“Cotons cottage was built in 1864 by Bently Coton who, with his wife Sarah Jane, was thought to be the first smallholder farmer in the Hororata district,” says DOC.

The building was extensively damaged during the September 2010 earthquake but was rebuilt by the Hororata Historic Society. It reopened in March of 2014.

Packhorse Hut was planned as part of a series of rest houses built by Harry Ell for a proposed summit route from Christchurch to Akaroa. Only four of these planned buildings were built. Packhorse Hut was secured on public land and now has regional importance for the development of tourism and, in particular, the opening up of Banks Peninsula. CT