RANDOM MEANDERINGS

Recently I've had a little burst of postcard purchases.  I just had to grab this one of the old Christchurch Public library as not only is it a piece of history lost to the earthquakes of 2010-2011 but my dad told me a wee anecdote when I was staying with my parents over Christmas just gone. Electric trams ran from 1905 in Christchurch so that places the photo used in the postcard after this.     Close up of detail on the postcard.  Note the bicycles in the stand to the right    As a 10 year old in July 1947 my dad remembers travelling by tram into the city with his schoolmates and standing outside the library for several hours waiting to catch a glimpse of  Field Marshal Montgomery passing in his car.  With his little legs aching and clutching his flag to wave as Montgomery's car passed, it finally appeared but as a blur...taking only seconds to zoom past much to the disappointment of my dad. Here ...

Trawling through Paperspast on the NZ National Library website, I discovered that my GGG Uncle William LODGE [1850-1913, son of Rosannah LODGE and stepson of Thomas Seth LODGE] had an indoor cricket pavilion built in Christchurch. This was beside the then Collin's Hotel [later to become The Occidental Hotel]. As far as I'm aware this would have been Christchurch's first indoor cricket facility as the pavilion at Lancaster Park was in the planning stages when this one was commenced in 1882. The photo below is c1889 - Cricket pavillion under arrow Thanks to Mr CH for the photo! The Star, 21 March 1882 reports : "Cricket will soon become as common a pastime in winter as in summer. In addition to the proposed pavilion for winter practice at Lancaster Park, Mr Lodge has commenced the erection of a similar building in Hereford street, next to Collins Hotel. The structure is to be wide enough to allow of two wickets being pitched, and owing to its proxi...