A Brief (but Growing) History of Linwood Cemetery
In the 1880s it was believed, both by the medical fraternity and the masses, that ‘it is not advisable on sanitary grounds that cemeteries should be situated in towns’. In September 1883 Dr. Courtney Nedwill advised the Christchurch City Council that ‘after a convenient period the further disposal of the dead should not be permitted in the city’. Negotiations were completed with the Linwood Town Board and Heathcote Road Board and an 18 acre burial reserve outside municipal boundaries dedicated. A Cemetery Committee researched the idea, reporting to the Council meeting of 26th November 1883 that:
Your committee inspected Reserve Nos 210 and 211 and found them in every way suitable for cemetery purposes, but commends the Council to set apart Reserve No 210, as being preferable for immediate use, and to have it gazetted as a cemetery for the City of Christchurch. That the City Surveyor be instructed to draw a general plan of the ground, and invite tenders for letting of the plots, and forming of the paths and fencing the reserve. That the City Surveyor estimate the cost of forming and metalling a road one chain wide, from the Canal reserve {Linwood Avenue} to the said Reserve. Also, estimate the cost of a light tramway from Cathedral Square to the said reserve. (The Lyttleton Times 27 November 1883, p6)
It only took a couple of weeks for the City Surveyor to report back:
I have prepared a large-scale plan of {the} cemetery reserve, also a plan showing different roads from Christchurch to the reserve. I have surveyed all the roads, and I find the one most suitable to be down Cashel Street to Canal reserve, and across Mr Attwood’s land to reserve No 210, this route is coloured red on the plan. The approximate cost of road and tramway (as good as already laid in Christchurch) would be as follows:- forming road from Ollivers Road to City Council 67 chains at 3 pounds, 201 pounds; shingling road 67 chains at 3 pounds, 201 pounds; 181 chains of tramway at 23 pounds per chain, 4163 pounds; fencing on side of the reserve, 47 chains at 3 pounds, 141 pounds; total 4,706 pounds. (The Lyttleton Times, 11 December 1883, p6)
The Council approved the surveyors plan and estimate without discussion.
Surveying of the boundaries happened sometime between then and 24 January 1884, because tender for the building of gates and fencing was awarded to Messrs Ogilvie & Co and they were due to start immediately. (The Lyttleton Times, 24 January 1884, p4)
Although the Barbadoes Street Cemetery was to be the site of funerals for many years to come, the frequency of such occurrences was to be on a much reduced scale than had been the case in the first 30 years of the history of the metropolis.
Linwood Cemetery is on sandy soil and originally was known as ‘the Sandhills’, then the ‘Corporation’ and then Linwood Cemetery. Its address was originally Buckley’s Road (Wises Directory, 1906), then by 1906 – Cemetery Road. Cemetery Road became Butterfield Avenue in 1936 (Wise’s Directory, 1936, p.236) the name changed at the request of the street’s residents (see also the film ‘A Grave Subject, 1999 – copy to be added to this site soon)
Christchurch, the centre of colonisation by the Canterbury Association in 1850, was founded on the principles of the Church of England; the Anglican church. The Anglican cathedral in Cathedral Square was to be at the ‘heart’ of the City. This is why the route to the cemetery had to go from the Council offices – then situated near Cathedral Square.
By October 1884 the cemetery was well laid out and the Mayor and Councillors of the Cemetery Committee visited to inspect the work. The 18 acres of the reserve had been fenced with a post and cap-rail fence with barbed wire below the cap rails. Some ten acres had been levelled and laid in grass. The Sexton’s cottage and mourning kiosk had been completed and the Sexton was by this date in residence Wellingtonias and Pinus insignis had been planted with belt of macrocarpas planted all around the cemetery a few feet from the fence. (Click here for more about the Sexton and the Sexton’s house.)
The Kiosk at Linwood Cemetery
“There was a small kiosk at the cemetery which was of a simple functional design. It had a front door and a small window at the side. It was located near Block 22 to the left of the large pine tree. The ministers performing burials used to change in the kiosk and the sexton kept tools in it. Inside there were hooks along the wall for the minister to hang clothing on.” (Section 2.1.6 p16 CCC Linwood Cemetery Conservation Plan, recollections of Ray Palermo, former Sexton of Linwood Cemetery)
Studying the copies of the original Sexton’s Maps, a kiosk is clearly marked to the side of Block 13. Yet following an interview (16/11/2005) with Ray Palermo, Sexton at the cemetery from 1961-1984, he assured Trustees the kiosk was next to Block 22, near the large pine tree at the turning circle of the tram line. It is highly likely that the Sexton’s map is correct, but, at some time, the kiosk was demolished and burials occurred on the original site of the kiosk, the area becoming part of Block 11 (Plots 14-28).
Block 11 is ‘up the hill’, a long walk from the main gate, but not so far from the turning circle at the end of the old tram line. It is in the Church of England section. There is a good view of most of the cemetery including the site of the Sexton’s house. The foot entrance opposite 140 McGregors Road would have given convenient access the kiosk from the road. There are other foot entrances near by; one out through Blocks 1 and 2 onto Hay Street and one on the opposite side of ‘the hill’ between Blocks 8 and 6, giving access to Butterfield Avenue and Jollie Street. There is a closed off vehicle entrance opposite 126 McGregors Rd and the bus stop is opposite 130 McGregors Rd. It is likely that these are later additions formed by the needs of the local community. Local knowledge would help more with understanding the introduction and use of the nearby entrances to the cemetery and how that might have related to access to the kiosk.
Once you know the location of the original kiosk, the aerial map clearly shows where it was placed (see below). It also explains the odd shapes of the current Block 13 and Block 11. By placing of the kiosk there, on a rise, gives a good view of most of the cemetery and would have been seen from most points.
There are / were foundation pegs visible in Block 22 by the large pine, up until recently. Judy McCaw, our Head Gardener has verified this. These may have been a later version of the kiosk or the foundations of a tram shelter or something else to do with the tram. This needs further research.
We know the original kiosk was built towards the end of 1884 or beginning of 1885, close to when the cemetery opened.
“The caretaker’s cottage has been erected and is all but complete, and a kiosk, to be placed on one of the eminences, is the next work to be carried out. The cemetery is connected with the Telephone Exchange.” (ref: unknown, source : R. Greenaway)
The telephone line was probably connected to the Sexton’s House (‘caretaker’s cottage’). An ‘eminence’ is a prominent area.
By working out which graves were put on the land formerly supporting the kiosk, we can work out when the kiosk was removed. There are 15 grave plots on the site of the old kiosk in three rows of 5 plots (CCC Cemetery Database) (Plots 14-28).The first people to be interred in this piece of land were laid to rest in September 1920. This implies that the land was cleared sometime during or before August 1920. If this was the original kiosk, it would have been standing for about 36 years before its demise. There may be reference to the removal of the kiosk in Council meeting records or local papers of the time – this requires further research.
The first person to be buried on the site was in Plot 18; the top east corner. Louisa BRENTON, 89 years old of Salisbury St. She died on the 2nd September and was buried on the 4th. The next two burials in this area were on the 8th of September; Plot 17 – Mabel McGiffert (next to Louisa) and Plot 22 – Lydia Clarkson; the top west corner of the site. On 20th September in Plot 16 (middle of the top row), George Ernest Blanch age 56, was buried. He had been in NZ for 6 years for most of which he had been headmaster at Christ’s College.
ref: Papers Past
Bishop Julius, also connected to Christ’s College, had died in 1918 and is buried in Block 11 Plot 4, just to the side of the kiosk. Whether this is why Mr Blanch was buried on the site of the original kiosk would need further investigation. The middle row (Plots 19-23) were ‘occupied’ first in 1920, 1926 and 1927. Internments in the front row (Plots 24-28) start in 1926 but 3 of the 5 are much later.
Update March 2013 : A Kiwi living in Texas, USA has found an image on the Auckland Library site clearly showing the Kiosk.
The full image and credit can be seen here.
The Cemetery and Religion
The majority of plots in Linwood Cemetery were designated for members of the congregation of the Church of England, but when immigration by the English was not as forthcoming as originally expected, the religious diversity of Christchurch was extended. This could be seen to be reflected in the size of the areas in the cemetery assigned to a particular faith which was determined according to representation per head of population.
Church of England (aka Episcopalian Church / Anglican Church)
The main Anglican area is to the south of the cemetery; Blocks 1-16A (‘up the hill’), 17, 18, 20-22, 24-26. This strange numbering is because the areas are vertical ‘slices’. On the north side (Bromley Park) Blocks 46 and 47 are also Church of England. In addition to these areas, Blocks 23 and 23A form the Church of England Free area and Block 48 includes the Sisters of the Anglican Community of the Sacred Name (see below). Rows are laid in a north to south direction. There are over 9000 Anglican plots in the cemetery.
Sisters of the Anglican Community of the Sacred Name
The graves of the Anglican Sisters of the Community of the Sacred Name (CSN) are divided into two plots – ‘plot one’ has a simple concrete perimeter with small headstones bearing Sister’s names. ‘Plot 2′ has a central monument dedicated to Mother Edith the foundress of the Community who was the Sister Superior from 1893 until she died in 1922. The perimeter of this area is marked in with clinker brick similar to that used in the construction of the CSN convent in Barbadoes Street. There are around 350 plots associated with the CSN.
The community was founded in New Zealand in 1893 by Sister Edith who was from the Deaconess Community of St Andrews in London which had been founded in 1861. The order was originally known as the Christchurch Deaconess Institution and it was a teaching and nursing order. Nurse Sybila Maude was an Associate and in 1897 lived at Deaconess House where she began District Nursing which became the District Nursing Association that was to bear her name.
On the perimeter of ‘Plot 2′ the names of Sisters are mounted on simple plaques at intervals around the wall. Sister Hilda was a teaching Sister who began teaching at St Michael and All Angel’s 1933. After travelling to England she returned to St Michael’s as acting headmistress in 1937-38 and remained as a teaching Sister until 1951 then continued to retain her long association with the school by becoming headmistress. She died in 1976. (Conservation Plan, February 2006)
Catholic Burials
The Catholic portion begins half way up the hill on the side nearest Buckleys Road and extends to the tree line at the northern end. (Blocks 37 -45). Rows are laid out in a north to south direction. The western end of Block 38 has six plots set out for stillborn children and suicides. It contains the remains of 3 people who suicided and 2 children. There are around 1160 plots in the Roman Catholic area. Those in Block 42 appear to be mainly of Irish descent. There are also Catholics of Polish and other eastern European descent in this area.
Methodist Burials
The Methodist (or Wesleyan) area is a ‘slice’ from Butterfield Avenue to McGregors Road (Blocks 31, 31A, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 and 36A). The rows are laid in a north to south direction. Most of Block 31A and 34 and the top two rows of Block 32 appear to have been free, that is probably paid for by the congregation as an act of charity. Unfortunately, we don’t have the original Sexton’s maps for Blocks 35, 36 and 36A which may identify other free areas. There are nearly 5,000 plots in the Wesleyan area. Some of these Blocks are laid out in confusing ways see Locating an Ancestor for more help with this
Scottish Presbyterians
Next to the Methodist area, is a slightly smaller Scottish area (Blocks 28, 29 and 30) containing just over 2100 plots. Block 29 is a mixture of purchased and free ground – where the cost of the plots was covered by the Presbyterian Church. It is believed that the prevalence of graves with no markers in this area are pauper’s graves.
The Jewish Section
Wealthy members of the Canterbury Hebrew Congregation subscribed money so that, on 13 October 1864, the community could purchase one rood of land on Hereford Street (approximately halfway between Fitzgerald Avenue and Stanmore Road). This was Part Rural Section 26 in the City of Christchurch. The title, a conveyance under the Deeds system, was vested in a group of four trustees as a burial ground. The original trustees were Louis Edward Nathan, Maurice Harris, Hyman Marks, David Davis and Henry Moss. New trustees were appointed in 1882, 1914 and 1926.
The first burial at the Hereford St Cemetery took place in 1865 and was of Sarah Elizabeth Nathan. There followed 34 burials in the graveyard, the last in April 1890. By that time, Linwood Cemetery had opened with a section set aside for Jewish graves. This runs from the foot to part way up the hill at the eastern end of the graveyard (Blocks 16 and 19).
‘For some considerable period’, the grounds at Hereford Street looked ‘unsightly’. In 1924 the congregation decided that it should close the Hereford Street Cemetery, shift the bodies to Linwood Cemetery and sell the land. A prospective buyer paid a deposit but the community discovered that, under the terms of the conveyance, the consent of two thirds of the congregation would be necessary before the disposal of the land could take place; also, a Private Bill would have to be put through Parliament. The congregation had to refund the money. For many years thereafter the community negotiated with relatives of people buried in the grounds so that all affected might agree to the sale.
John McCullough, a local member of the Legislative Council, piloted through Parliament the Canterbury Jewish Cemetery Empowering Bill which passed its third reading on 18 August 1943. It was argued that residential settlement had grown up in the area and it was ‘in the public interest that the said ground be closed as a burial ground’; that the bodies be transferred to a ‘properly recognised burial ground’; and that the land be sold off by public auction or private contract.
Dr. Telford inspected the cemetery, being accompanied by members of the congregation and Mr. Hitchcock who lived in a house on one side of the cemetery, whose daughter occupied a property on the other, and who was the purchaser. Telford opened the graves and made several comments:
“There’s nothing there, not even a nail …. Not a trace of a long bone or a skull bone …. There are no remains to remove and rebury – you had better take some of the earth and bury that”.
Hitchcock paid 500 pounds for the cemetery and, when all expenses were paid, the congregation pocketed 350 pounds.
When the content of the Jewish Cemetery had been buried in one plot at Linwood (Block 19, Plot 71), a headstone was erected with the words
‘Here repose the remains of the following that were removed from the Hereford Street Jewish Cemetery’.
There followed a list of the people who had been reburied, including Alfred Isaac Raphael, an early Christchurch City Councillor, who died in 1875. The memorial was restored in 1974 but has been seriously damaged in the February 2011 earthquake.
Jewish graves are laid out in row east to west near the rise of the hill. We do not have the original Sexton’s maps for these areas but there are currently 318 plots in these two Blocks. New burial plots are still available in this area.
Jewish history is not widely represented in Christchurch so Linwood Cemetery holds an important place for the Jewish community.
Non-denominational and new graves
Close to the car park and to the left of the path that leads parallel to Buckleys Road and Bromley Park, is Block A. These quarter plots were set aside for people who did not want to, or could not be, buried in an area designated by faith. This area also contains newer graves as the cemetery is still an active one. The style and prevalence of offerings clearly shows this. There are currently just over 350 quarter-plots being used.
The First Burial at Linwood Cemetery
Sarah Anne Freeman died of tuberculosis on 8 July 1884, and was interred two days later on the hill at the east end of the graveyard (Block 2, Plot 1).
“The first interment in the cemetery … took place yesterday, and the Mayor and members of the City Council attended on the occasion. There was something peculiar about this funeral from the fact that it was that of the wife of the Sexton.
…. The ground, it may be noted, is very good indeed for the purpose, and a great deal has already been done in the matter of improving the cemetery by means of planting &c. The caretaker’s cottage has been erected and is all but complete, and a kiosk, to be placed on one of the eminences, is the next work to be carried out. The cemetery is connected with the Telephone Exchange, and ere long it is hoped a tramway will be constructed to it.”
If there was ever a memorial to the unfortunate Mrs Freeman, it no longer exists. The Friends of Linwood Cemetery installed a small memorial to mark the plot in July 2012.
People of cultures other than those of British descent
Christchurch was multi-cultural from the start of its expansion by colonists. We are currently researching people of this range of cultures buried in Linwood Cemetery and will expand this section soon.
The Tramway
In March 1884, the Council had approved the construction of a tramway to the cemetery. It was mooted that the tramway would start from the corner of Cashel and High Streets and then turn eastward to the new cemetery. The cost of the two and one half miles of line was estimated at 5,069 pounds and 10 shillings which included three cars and a shed. The line was to be let to the cemetery for the sum of 400 pounds per annum. It was also noted that as 300 graves were formed annually at Barbadoes Street Cemetery, the same average might be expected at Linwood Cemetery. On this calculation the Council expected that the new cemetery would provide an annual return of 7.5% on the total cost of the cemetery for the first two years.
The cost of providing cemeteries was a very real one. The Addington Cemetery formed in 1858 had struggled to be financially viable. The Council debated the reality of the cost of providing a public transport system from the city to the cemetery. Councillors considered that the building of a tramway in one street only for a sole purpose was not the role of the city and it was mooted that the tramway could make a considerable saving if “…it might be effected by having a cheap and efficient means of conveying refuse and night soil out of the city.” So the tramway into the cemetery was justified as a means to link passengers by a 200m walk to the Linwood-end of the New Brighton Line at ‘The Junction’ (now the corner of Rudds Rd and Coulter St) and overnight take rubbish and night-soil to the Council’s Sandihills ‘rubbish tip’, the entrance of which was on what is now Rudds Rd.
A tram-line, the ‘Corporation line’, or ‘cemetery tramway’, was indeed established. About 5km (over 3 miles) long, the line began at the Council’s Yard in Oxford Terrace (nowthe site of the Scott statue) and went up the length of Worcester St – via the north side of Cathedral Square – to Canal Reserve (now Linwood Avenue) along Buckleys Rd and into Cemetery Rd (now Butterfield Ave) terminating in Linwood Cemetery. Evidence of the old tram lines can still be seen in the undulating surface of the tar-sealed road that leads north through the cemetery from the Butterfield Avenue car park.
Victorian funerals were, as they are today, an expensive exercise – the cost of mourning coaches, plumed horses, appropriate clothing and funeral staff weighing heavily on the less well off. The tramway proposal was considered to be an answer to relieve some of this financial burden. (Linwood Cemetery Conservation Plan, February 2006.) In 1885, one year after Linwood Cemetery had opened, and only about 40 people had been buried in the cemetery (there are now around 20,000 people interred), a tramway funeral hearse was commissioned by the City Council to reduce the price of funerals for those on a low income.
The tramway hearse had elliptical plate-glass windows and fine wood paneling. It was designed to take 4 caskets at a time. Painted in black and with railings on a low roof to hold floral tributes, the hearse was never used. Alas, the poor, who might be expected to appreciate cheap funerals, would not accept the vehicle, however neatly it might accommodate four corpses. In January 1888, the Council’s Cemetery Committee recommended that the sleepers and rails leading from the tram-line into the graveyard (about 12 chains in length) be taken up and used elsewhere, but nothing was done about it as they can still be seen; as already mentioned.
The tramway hearse was such an embarrassment to the City Council it was sold in 1901 for three pounds; 1% of the price it cost to build. No remains are believed to exist. Mr Samuel Andrews MP ex-Mayor of Christchurch and owner of St Andrew’s Hill quarries who brought it, is ironically buried in Linwood Cemetery (B36P46) following his death in 1916. Andrews had the vehicle on the side of the main road till about 1906-07, using it as a store for explosives. His sons, Hastings and George, then built a wooden pontoon, placed the hearse on it, and added a galley. Four bunks were fitted, a collapsible table installed for meals, and the bunks used as seats. The Andrews boys spent their summers on the houseboat which was moored off Moncks jetty, the site of the present Christchurch Yacht Club.
The New Brighton Tramway Company utilised the line, extending it through the sand hills where Pages Road is now located, and on to the seaside. Many Cantabrians have told us how they remember visiting the graves of their ancestors by a tram that drove into the cemetery grounds, or glancing at their family monument from the tram on their way to New Brighton, until trams were replaced by buses around1952.
There is further impact of the tram in the cemetery as shown on three headstones:
Tram Conductor, Charles Cohen, aged 21, fell off the foot board of a moving Linwood tram on Saturday 20th May 1911. Suffering from concussion of the brain and other injuries, he was taken to hospital but died on the morning of Monday 22nd May 1911. His memorial (B19 P62) was erected by Tramway Board employees in Christchurch, probably as he had no family in NZ. This memorial fell in the 22/2/2011 earthquake.
Frank Fox had only been in NZ for a couple of years also leaving his parents in England. He was a 27 year old traffic clerk working in the offices of the Christchurch Tramway Board. On 21 June 1910, he had a fatal heart attack at his desk. His memorial (B12P52) was also erected by fellow employees of Tramway Board, but sadly now is lost.
Elizabeth (Millie) Malcolm died on 23rd May 1903 aged 34 of complications following injury in a collision between a horse-drawn tram and a steam tram on Ferry Road on 11th April 1903. Buried at B13P60, her son was also badly concussed in the accident but seems to have survived.
How the cemetery used to look
There is very little photographic evidence to show us what the cemetery used to look like. Public opinion of our elder citizens is that it is looking much better since The Friends took to tidying the land about 12 years ago. The gates to the cemetery had gone and a few years ago The Friends encouraged the Council to reinstate new gates, designed as close to the old ones as possible, but more durable. The last Sexton to live on-site was interviewed and drew a sketch of the gates. The gates were made and then, as often happens, someone produced a photograph of the old gates. We weren’t too far out! The gates are powder coated metal but give the appearance of solid wood. The white picket fence has been replaced with block and cable fencing.
Recently Sarndra Lees came across an archive photo of the B32P146&167 Bowbyes grave plot. It is clear from the picture that not only this grave plot but others are likely to have had china floral tributes on them. Sadly, only one or two of these remain in the cemetery today.
Similar tributes have fared better in Bromley Cemetery where examples of these permanent posies give splashes of colour on the mottled grey monuments. We can see the whiteness of the new stone from the Bowbyes picture. Imagine how that grave plot and other new ones around it must have looked dotted with colour.
The Cemetery Today
Confusion still reigns over the name of the cemetery. One of five cemeteries in close proximity in the area.
Linwood Cemetery has had many names including the New Cemetery, Corporation Cemetery, Sandihills, Sandilands and finally Linwood Cemetery as the land was originally under the jurisdiction of Linwood Town Board.
Linwood Cemetery is in Bromley, next to Bromley Park which is very confusing when the later Bromley Cemetery (1918) borders Linwood Avenue.
Further confusion arises with Bromley Cemetery having Canterbury Crematorium opposite it’s main gates with Woodlawn Memorial Gardens for ashes behind it.
This has led to a colloquial mix up of names; Bromley Cemetery being referred to as ‘the old Linwood Cemetery’; Canterbury Crematorium as ‘Linwood Crematorium’; Woodlawn Memorial Gardens as (the new) Linwood Cemetery and Linwood Cemetery as Bromley Cemetery.
Linwood Cemetery is still open for burials (under certain conditions) and there are around 20,000 people buried in there. It is estimated that there are just under 18,000 plots and over 1,400 still born children in unmarked graves. It’s approximately 1.5km to walk the parameter of the cemetery.
We also estimate that 1 in 5 headstones have been damaged (many more since the 22 February 2011 earthquake), graffiti and deliberate destruction still occurring often. Nevertheless, it is still a wonderful space to walk, sit, even play and picnic and very hard to walk through without stopping at at least one plot and wondering about the person resting there.
Sources: Richard L. N Greenaway, June 2007, Linwood Cemetery Tour.
On the Move: Christchurch Transport through the years. 3. Rails in the Roads, the Steam and Horse Tram Era in Christchurch, pub: Christchurch Transport Board, Tramway Historical Society , undated
Plot locations, illustrations and excerpts from Linwood Cemetery Conservation Plan (February 2006) and additional research added by Alexandra Gilbert. (Updated 4th May 2011 and 25th February 2013 by Alexandra Gilbert)
© The Friends of Linwood Cemetery Charitable Trust
