Shelter – ‘Home Sweet Home’
In the first days and nights the immigration barracks provided some comfort and shelter. Once immigrants decided to build a basic dwelling, tents, V-Huts, or basic timber and sod cottages, they would have the shelter they needed in the summer months. There was little to be had in the way of comfort and plenty of problems that caused life to be uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous or deadly
Crowded Barracks
The immigrants’ barracks, built from timber brought from Hobart, Nelson and some from Banks Peninsula, had a well lined with bricks nearby. This was the result of some of the work done in preparation by those sent out in 1849 by the Canterbury Association (before the arrival of the ‘Four Ships’ the next year). The goal was to get the basics of life ready for the many people who would follow.
Did You Know?
Infested with rats
“On our arrival in Lyttelton there were no houses available and the barracks had not been built. We had therefore to live in a tent for some time. The tent was not very comfortable and my Mother often had to put up an umbrella over her baby to keep it dry. Lyttelton being very bare we felt the high winds very much. Often there would be a whirlwind which would lift light things in the air and give us a great deal of trouble. My mother often had to go down to the beach and search among the boulders for articles of clothing which had been blown there. One man, who was a carpenter, built himself a V hut. One day while he and his wife were at dinner, a whirlwind lifted the hut over their heads and left them seated at the table.
…Father was then engaged by Mr Watts Russel…to manage his farm at Riccarton – the land which was afterwards called the Illam Estate… My father made a ‘dugout’ for us to live in, in the riverbank. It was roofed with weatherboards and had a wooden chimney which caught on fire and had to be knocked in to the river to save the roof. The dugout became infested with native rats and one night one of them got into my brother’s shirt and had to be killed before we could get it out. These rats were great thieves and would carry off food to be eaten elsewhere. On occasion they carried off my father’s tobacco. My mother afterward found it on the edge of the river where they had left it.
One of my brothers died while we were living in the ‘dugout’.”
Source: Eliza H Withell nee Corlett, Early Recollections of Mrs Eliza Hanna Withell nee Corlett as told to W.S. Lovell-Smith, Member of Historical Committee Cantebrury Pilgrims Association, May 1924
Canterbury Museum Documentary Research Centre
Crowded Barracks
The immigrants’ barracks, built from timber brought from Hobart, Nelson and some from Banks Peninsula, had a well lined with bricks nearby. This was the result of some of the work done in preparation by those sent out in 1849 by the Canterbury Association (before the arrival of the ‘Four Ships’ the next year). The goal was to get the basics of life ready for the many people who would follow.
Did You Know?
- The barracks were designed to shelter 300 people. But there were 200 cabin passengers and around 580 steerage passengers! Some people simply stayed on board their ship or set up tents and very basic shelters.
- Settlers were expected to stay in the barracks for one week only and food rations were supplied for one week after coming ashore.
- Some were so horrified by the basic and crowded barracks that they did just that, or left within a few days. Others tried to stay longer.
Infested with rats
“On our arrival in Lyttelton there were no houses available and the barracks had not been built. We had therefore to live in a tent for some time. The tent was not very comfortable and my Mother often had to put up an umbrella over her baby to keep it dry. Lyttelton being very bare we felt the high winds very much. Often there would be a whirlwind which would lift light things in the air and give us a great deal of trouble. My mother often had to go down to the beach and search among the boulders for articles of clothing which had been blown there. One man, who was a carpenter, built himself a V hut. One day while he and his wife were at dinner, a whirlwind lifted the hut over their heads and left them seated at the table.
…Father was then engaged by Mr Watts Russel…to manage his farm at Riccarton – the land which was afterwards called the Illam Estate… My father made a ‘dugout’ for us to live in, in the riverbank. It was roofed with weatherboards and had a wooden chimney which caught on fire and had to be knocked in to the river to save the roof. The dugout became infested with native rats and one night one of them got into my brother’s shirt and had to be killed before we could get it out. These rats were great thieves and would carry off food to be eaten elsewhere. On occasion they carried off my father’s tobacco. My mother afterward found it on the edge of the river where they had left it.
One of my brothers died while we were living in the ‘dugout’.”
Source: Eliza H Withell nee Corlett, Early Recollections of Mrs Eliza Hanna Withell nee Corlett as told to W.S. Lovell-Smith, Member of Historical Committee Cantebrury Pilgrims Association, May 1924
Canterbury Museum Documentary Research Centre
V- Huts
For many settlers, the simple constructions known as V-Huts provided a temporary housing solution. The building of these could take considerable resourcefulness, planning and hard work and a lot of time. Dr Barker's V-Hut, which he called Studdingsail Hall, named after the the type of ship sail he used to cover it, provides one example.
Emma Barker waited for her husband Dr. Barker to build their V-Hut, first on board the Charlotte Jane, followed by over a month at a public house in Sumner. Dr. Barker sent a huge studding-sail and a few boxes up the Avon river in a canoe. He set up a tent with the end divided off with blankets, and with poles cut from wood which were dragged and carried to the site using flax leaves tied together. He chose a section of land, moved the hut to it, replaced the supporting poles with sawn timber and boarded up the ends: home – sweet – home, until he could build a permanent house. Dr Barker has also provided us with a sketch of the interior.
A Fire is Much to Be Dreaded
Charlotte Godley, the wife of Chief Surveyor John Godley, wrote a letter to her mother describing the earliest shelters and basic homes that people built on their arrival.
"My Dear Mother,
…Mr. Chomondeley has two tents, and a house, partly timber and partly sods, but I cannot go through them all, and the workmen have all built little temporary places to put themselves and their families in; some of what they call here a ‘V hut’, that is, a mere sloping roof of boards overlapping, set on the ground without any walls to stand on, and of course removable without loss, except of a little labour, when they know where they will finally settle, -or by wind… Some have ‘cob’ houses, frames of poles filled in with clay, and some, merely a frame of branches and poles, thatched with fern and grass.
Of course a fire in such places is much to be dreaded, especially with our strong winds. One was set on fire and burnt down in less than five minutes (and two others that stood near, three days ago) with all in it that had not legs to escape on; and very nearly a poor baby, the only child, of a few weeks old, whose mother ran out without it! Till at last the father missed the child and fetched it, but a fire once lighted here is quite unmanageable, and the danger is from there being yet no chimneys; the fires are lighted in holes, just outside the doors…the wooden houses are generally as ugly as possible, until they get verandas and so on."
Source: Charlotte Godley, Letters from Early New Zealand 1850 – 1853, 1951, Christchurch City Libraries
For many settlers, the simple constructions known as V-Huts provided a temporary housing solution. The building of these could take considerable resourcefulness, planning and hard work and a lot of time. Dr Barker's V-Hut, which he called Studdingsail Hall, named after the the type of ship sail he used to cover it, provides one example.
Emma Barker waited for her husband Dr. Barker to build their V-Hut, first on board the Charlotte Jane, followed by over a month at a public house in Sumner. Dr. Barker sent a huge studding-sail and a few boxes up the Avon river in a canoe. He set up a tent with the end divided off with blankets, and with poles cut from wood which were dragged and carried to the site using flax leaves tied together. He chose a section of land, moved the hut to it, replaced the supporting poles with sawn timber and boarded up the ends: home – sweet – home, until he could build a permanent house. Dr Barker has also provided us with a sketch of the interior.
A Fire is Much to Be Dreaded
Charlotte Godley, the wife of Chief Surveyor John Godley, wrote a letter to her mother describing the earliest shelters and basic homes that people built on their arrival.
"My Dear Mother,
…Mr. Chomondeley has two tents, and a house, partly timber and partly sods, but I cannot go through them all, and the workmen have all built little temporary places to put themselves and their families in; some of what they call here a ‘V hut’, that is, a mere sloping roof of boards overlapping, set on the ground without any walls to stand on, and of course removable without loss, except of a little labour, when they know where they will finally settle, -or by wind… Some have ‘cob’ houses, frames of poles filled in with clay, and some, merely a frame of branches and poles, thatched with fern and grass.
Of course a fire in such places is much to be dreaded, especially with our strong winds. One was set on fire and burnt down in less than five minutes (and two others that stood near, three days ago) with all in it that had not legs to escape on; and very nearly a poor baby, the only child, of a few weeks old, whose mother ran out without it! Till at last the father missed the child and fetched it, but a fire once lighted here is quite unmanageable, and the danger is from there being yet no chimneys; the fires are lighted in holes, just outside the doors…the wooden houses are generally as ugly as possible, until they get verandas and so on."
Source: Charlotte Godley, Letters from Early New Zealand 1850 – 1853, 1951, Christchurch City Libraries
See also >>
Our new land | Food | Shelter | Stormy weather | Bridle Path | A place to settle
__________________________________________________________________________
Haere Mai, Welcome / Solving History’s Mysteries / Will you join us? / Our Journey / Our New Land / Resources / About this site / Links / Sitemap
Our new land | Food | Shelter | Stormy weather | Bridle Path | A place to settle
__________________________________________________________________________
Haere Mai, Welcome / Solving History’s Mysteries / Will you join us? / Our Journey / Our New Land / Resources / About this site / Links / Sitemap