Cottage History #1

Our Cottage is sited close to the Ōtākaro/Avon River, near the Barbadoes Street Bridge, where the tidal waters of the estuary meet the fresh waters of the river.  The area has special significance for both Māori and Pākehā, because it was the site of the pā of Tautahi for whom Otautahi/Christchurch is named.

Just across the river is the area now known as Cambridge Green.  The water which flows there from Te Wai Pure o Tautahi, the ceremonial waters of Tautahi (St Mary’s Stream) into the river was used to bless the marriage of Tautahi to Riki Te Auru, a Waitaha princess.  This marriage consolidated the bonds between the families of Kaiapoi and Port Levy.  The water is still used by Māori for ceremonial purposes.

Across the road is The Bricks cairn which marks where the Deans brothers landed in 1843 because their boats, which were shipping bricks for their Riccarton homestead, couldn’t go any further.  The brothers unloaded their bricks and proceeded by canoe to what was to become their home at Riccarton.  Some of those bricks are now incorporated into the cairn that marks the spot.  This whole area was the focus of early Pakeha settlement, and it is where trade and commerce commenced in Christchurch when Māori brought supplies of potatoes to the first Pākehā settlers.  The allocation of land sections was worked out from here, and the first commercial buildings were around this site.  In 1851 there were four cottages in this area which formed the first Pakeha settlement on the plains.

The Bricks cairn

Inner city Christchurch was carefully planned with the streets in a grid pattern.  The Avon Loop was originally part of the Town Reserve, set aside for a botanic garden, with an area in the north for the cemetery.  The soil within the Loop proved to be unsuitable for a botanic garden and this was moved over to Hagley Park.  William Wilson known as Cabbage, who became the first Mayor of Christchurch in 1867, then established a plant nursery where he sold the settlers such essentials as privet, gorse, and broom.  He owned 18 hectares from the present Avon Loop right down to Ferry Road.  In 1863 the Cottage land was conveyed by Superintendent Moorhouse to lawyer Thomas Papprill, and in 1864 Papprill sold to Wyatt Travers. In 1872 it was sold to Steere, and after this a certificate of title was issued to Arthur Appleby.

In 1877 Appleby sold it to George Levitt Binning, a City Council Labourer.  (Binning’s wife Ann (Hannah, nee Southwick) was buried 6 May 1897 at Linwood, aged 56 years.  Her residence then was given as 186 Barbadoes Street North.  George Levitt was buried 4 November 1898, aged 64.)   This led us to believe that the Cottage may have been built in 1878, but in 2019 a History Librarian showed me a picture dated 1877 which shows our cottage.

At first it would have been just the two front rooms, and was probably constructed from a kitset, selected from a catalogue, and shipped from Australia.  In 1858 a Christchurch builder advertised “Prefabricated houses of four rooms, ₤20, and ₤2 to erect.  Ours, being only two rooms, would have been cheaper.  An article in “Press” 15 July 1989 suggested that although the dwelling referred to in this advertisement was an unusually cheap example of its type, the portable, prefabricated house was commonly the property of the more affluent immigrant.  The construction is conventional with mixed foundations of concrete pile and stone, timber floors, light timber frame, weatherboard exterior cladding and a galvanized corrugated steel roof.

In 1893 it was transferred from Binning to his daughter Jane Eliza Goodwin, wife of George Elliott Goodwin, Clerk, “for her separate use”. (Jane Eliza was born 7 May 1867, baptized 10 June 1867.  She married George Goodwin, 6 February 1890, at Oxford Terrace Baptist Church.  He was born in London U.K. and aged 20 when he married).  It’s intriguing to wonder why Binning might think his daughter would have separate use for a house.

We found an antique birthday card inside one of the walls.  The back is inscribed: To my dear son George Elliott Goodwin from his loving mother on his 20 birthday.  May joy and . . . . (indecipherable).   With love always.

George Goodwin’s birthday card

I wonder why his daughter Jane
was left a house for her domain