Lyttelton sets out ‘to preserve colonial character’

Press, 19 April 1980, Page 15

Lyttelton sets out ‘to preserve colonial character’

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Pictures by DES WOODS

VICKI FUREY

"Port Hills, best thing that ever happened to Lyttelton — blocks the town off from Christchurch.” — A Lyttelton resident. Over the Summit Road, or through the Road Tunnel, there’s a different atmosphere on. the other side of the Port Hills. Small winding streets meander up steep hillsides passing on their way homes that have stood for 120 years or more — homes that will probably be there for at least another half century/ A group of residents have even formed the Lyttelton Vintage Homes Club to encourage people to “preserve the colonial character of older homes surrounding Lyttelton Harbour.” The club runs workshop nights — “so

that people know where to come for advice” — for those wanting to restore the older homes, says the club president, Arthur Erdman. Old homes abound in Lyttelton. In the last five years there has been a steady trickle of “townies” shifting into the port. Along with the locals, they are buying up the old houses, restoring and revamping. In the space of even a kilometre it is possible to find four or five houses in varying stages of reconstruction.

Even so many of the houses are beyond repair; or are not worth saving. Dampier’s House in Godley Quay is one of the oldest-standing in the port. Built in 1850-51, it takes its name from the man who was a lawyer for the Canterbury .Association. The area is still known as Dampiers Bay even though the land has been reclaimed and oil storage tanks now hamper the view of the harbour.

Like many of the old homes in the port, Dampers House was built with black pine, kauri, and totara from the once-wooded

peninsula. But now the timber is rotting, the paint flaking. The house contains two flats. It could still be saved but “it would be a major job to bring it up to what it was,” as is the case with many of the old houses, Mr Erdman says. The amazing thing about Lyttelton is that so many of the houses have been kept close to their original design, although Arthur Erdman says that many have been ruined by lack of forethought. “It takes a lot of money to do up a house properly, that’s the crunch,” he adds. The Hewitson family bought the Miller house in Godley Quay three years and a half ago. It was in relatively good condition,

but there was rotten wood to be replaced, wrought iron that had to be sandblasted and repainted, redecorating of the inside, and a hundred other little jobs.

Mrs Jenny Hewitson says that it will be a long time yet before it is restored to a shade of its former elegance, to the days when men arrived for dinner in top hat and tails, accompanied by ladies in their long gowns. Restoring an old house is a labour of love, a job that needs an appreciation of craftsmanship. Arthur Erdman points out the astragals in a house (the pieces of wood separating the panes of glass in a colonial window). In the colonial days these were made of light thin timber — “A real craftsman’s job.” Today, because- of the expense of labour, the timber is much thicker; it’s one way of dating a house.

Many of the old houses in port probably have not been pulled down and replaced with new houses because the sections in Lyttelton are fairly small, says Mr Erdman. Bits and

pieces have been added but the essential character of most houses remains — stained glass, tongue-in-groove panelling, brass doorsteps, and wrought iron are common. The old Anglican vicarage still has a slate roof. But every now and then

you come across; a house that has changed little, if at all in 80 or 100 years. Miss Margery Hatchwell has lived in Devonia all her life. Her father — a master-mariner with the

New Zealand Shipping ' Company for many years —bought it from an Australian about 1899. Much of the furniture in the home her mother and father brought with them from England. Paintings and photographs on: the i livingroom wall tell the

story of a family that has been at home with the sea for many years. In Lyttelton there is no getting away from the fact that it’s a port town.