History & heritage  |  8 Apr 2022

The west rose window at historic St Michael’s and All Angels Church will be repaired with the help of a $26,288 Heritage Incentive Grant.

The nine-panelled rose window was installed in 1872, the year the church first opened. It sits above the porch at the main entrance and is in poor condition due to the age of the glass, decayed lead and warped window frames.

On Thursday Christchurch City Council approved the grant to support conservation work on the window.

All of the glass panels will need to be removed, cleaned, stabilised, repaired and re-leaded. The Category 1 historic place features multiple windows designed and made by notable artists and craftspeople of the time.

The church parish is seeking to restore the west rose window ahead of the anniversary of its initial installation, which will be marked in June 2023.

Preserving Antarctic heritage

Kinsey Cottage and Darkroom was relocated to Ferrymead Heritage Park in 1971. 

The building that served as a meeting place for Antarctic explorers Sir Robert Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and ‘Terra Nova’ expedition photographer Herbert Ponting will be repaired and repainted with the help of a $5,692 grant.

The Council's Sustainability and Community Resilience Committee Committee last week agreed to fund exterior repainting and joinery restoration on Kinsey Cottage and Darkroom at Ferrymead Heritage Park.

“The darkroom is where the iconic pictures capturing some of the most enduring and famous images of Antarctic exploration were developed,” Council Heritage Team Leader Brendan Smyth says.  

Kinsey Cottage and Darkroom belonged to Sir Joseph Kinsey, a Christchurch shipping agent and amateur photographer who helped facilitate Scott and Shackleton’s ‘Terra Nova’ expedition to Antarctica in 1910 to 1913.

The Cottage was built in the early 1900s, and originally located at the rear of Kinsey’s ‘Werrimoo’ property at 99 Papanui Road.

Historic reminder of early social housing project

A 1900’s villa that was part of the country’s first government social housing project was also given a Heritage Incentive Grant of $5,136 to protect the building for future generations.

Currently operating as a vegetarian café, 23 Mandeville Street in Riccarton was part of the original ‘Walker Settlement,’ a group of 17 houses built to provide affordable accommodation following the 1905 Workers’ Dwelling Act.

The money will help replace the roof and upgrade the hipped roof structure.

The act paved the way for the first programme of public housing provision in New Zealand by central government.

Built between 1909 and 1912, only two of the Walker Settlement houses now remain. Mr Smyth says the building has strong associations with what became the foundations of New Zealand’s world-leading social welfare system. 

“The project wasn’t wildly successful, with only 648 houses built nationwide. It was however the precursor to the first Labour government’s state housing programme so the building has an important connection to that social heritage.”

The Committee also granted $87,500 to support the repair, conservation and upgrade of the St Barnabas Church Hall.

Heritage Incentive Grants provide funding to help protect and celebrate heritage buildings, places, structures and objects.