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Picton Cemetery
Picton Cemetery is one of the oldest burial grounds in the province of Marlborough, dating back to the very early European settlement in Picton. Many notable figures of the town were laid to rest here...
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Mrs France and Billy Carr's Hardware Store
Billy CarrBilly Carr's hardware store was a prominent building in Blenheim for many years from the time it opened in 1881. Many people back then had their own stories of Billy Carr. The following is a...
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The Star and Garter Hotel and the Richmond Volunteer Fire Brigade
Richmond's Star and Garter Hotel, established in 1845/46 is one of the oldest hotels in New Zealand still operating on its original site and still using (largely) it's original name. The Star was...
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Thomas Sullivan
Seaview Cemetery, Block 24, Plot 462Thomas born in Dublin in August 1798. He was the only son in a large Catholic family and was destined for the priesthood. The sudden death of his mother produced a...
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The Mayoral Shop
The premises at 83-86 Bridge Street in Nelson were the birthplace of the mayoral ambitions of three families.The first owner Moss Davis (1847-1933), an early Nelson Jewish merchant, set up shop in the...
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Hop Harvest
Hop HarvestMarch 1st is a significant date in the Nelson district because it heralds the start of the hop harvest. The hot, dry summer has ripened the flower cones of Humulus lupulus that have been...
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Over a Century of Hops
The Lines Family flow with the Winds of ChangeThe Lines family have lived on land at Wai-iti for 170 years. Thomas and his second wife Anne arrived on the Thomas Harrison in 1842 with five children....
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Graves of Fairfield Park
Fairfield Park, one of Nelson’s first cemeteries, was created in 1851 and over 78 people were buried here before it closed in 1910. It had various names, including Old Trafalgar Street Cemetery, or...
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Day's Track
The story behind the nameWhen Edward Bisley subdivided the Tahunanui hillside in the 1920s, Nelson’s Leonard Day built many of the new homes. Among his houses were those near the dirt track that led...
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The sofa of Days Track
Sofa so good - a community art projectIt’s a steep climb up Days Track in Nelson. The track starts at Rocks Road and the first section runs to Grenville Terrace, the second section to Moana Avenue and...
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Trask Memorial Gates Queens Gardens
Francis Reuben Trask (1840 – 5 April 1910) was a 20th-century Member of the Legislative Council from Nelson, New Zealand and Mayor of Nelson. He also served on the Nelson Harbour Board from its...
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Rocks Road
In a line of five o'clock commuter traffic, listening to drive time radio, it's hard to imagine the days when Rocks Road was a narrow, precarious, wave-swept walkway between the town and the beach....
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Nelson's Dress Circle
The streets around Brougham Street and Upper Collingwood Street are often known as Nelson's Dress Circle, due to their elevated position and the number of large old houses sited there. This story is a...
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The Nelson Volunteer Fire Brigade
The early years from 1858-1868The history of Nelson's early Volunteer Fire Brigade is difficult to trace. The earliest reference dates to September 18581 , when a meeting was planned to organise a Fire...
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The voyage of the SS Lyttelton
London to Wellington in 462 daysThe Nelson waterfront is now the domain of the chardonnay set, but from the deck of the recreational fishing berth you'll see an old boiler, near the Aotearoa mural,...
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Fairfield Graveyard
The Fairfield graveyard, along with the popular Fairfield house was for a long time thought to be haunted (as are most graveyards).Nelson Cemeteries. Nelson City CouncilClick image to enlargeOn the...
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Shelbourne Street Gaol
Unwanted, Unneeded, Unremembered: The Life of the Nelson Gaol 1850-1898The Nelson Gaol built at Shelbourne St in 1850 is little known or remembered as part of modern day Nelson society. But at its...
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Samuel Stephens (1803-1855)
New Zealand Company Surveyor, Politician and QuakerSamuel Stephens sailed from England on the Whitby in 1841 with Arthur Wakefield, and they became close friends. As they sailed near the entrance of...
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Blick Cloth
Blick Cloth is reputed to be the first woven cloth in New Zealand. It was also known as Nelson Cloth or Nelson Tweed, and was 'described as 'good rough woollen cloth' (Anon,1845:5).1 It was...
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William Harkness
The ideal settlerWhen William Harkness, and his older brother John disembarked from the Thomas Sparks at Nelson on 26th February 1843, it was to be the beginning of a productive and profitable...
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