Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

This mural on the bridge at the Lyttelton Port depicts the early settlers arriving in Canterbury in 1850. I’d never really noticed the mural before, but a building has come down beside the bridge so it’s now quite visible.

I recently discovered that my great-great-grandfather James William Tourell (or it may be three greats I’m not entirely sure) came to Canterbury (landing in Lyttelton) in the early 1850’s (according to his obituary). I’ve looked up the ship manifest and he arrived in 1855 onboard the Caroline Agnes – which apparently had a pretty rough trip from London to Lyttelton (it took 4 months).  After arriving here, he lived on Ferry Road but later settled in Kaiapoi where he is buried. He was a carpenter and assisted in the building of “Mr W. Heaphy’s Universal Hotel’ which became the Queens Hotel. I don’t know a lot about this side of my family (and certainly not that far back) but I intend to find his gravestone in the Kaiapoi cemetery. If you are a kiwi Tourelle / Tourell and reading this, hello cousin! Yes I think we are all related apparently. I grew up in Southland and Otago, so was quite chuffed to discover one of my ancestors landed in Canterbury just a few years after ‘the pilgrims’!