‘They passed this way’ That is the simple inscription on the Canterbury Pioneer Women’s Memorial, erected on the Bridle Path on the Summit road, overlooking Lyttelton and Christchurch.
The Memorial commemorates the courage and hard work of the region’s pioneering women.
The foundation stone for the memorial was laid by Lilian Priscilla Wakefield, the granddaughter of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, on 16 December 1939. The shelter, designed by Heathcote Helmore, was unveiled on Saturday, 14 December 1940, almost 90 years after the Canterbury Pilgrims landed in Lyttelton and walked over the hills to Christchurch.
The stone shelter with conical slate roof, and the memorial were opened free of debt — a tribute to the generosity of Canterbury residents and to the enthusiasm of the women’s committee.
The interest taken in the memorial was shown by the great crowd that attended the official opening, 11 buses, and nearly 100 private cars being requisitioned to transport to the site those desirous of attending the ceremony.
The official opening featured the band of the 1st Battalion, Canterbury Regiment, who played the National Anthem and a hymn, after which Miss M. A. Trent introduced the speakers – each a descendant of those who had arrived in the First Four Ships.
The inscription on the mural inside the shelter, which depicts a family walking over the hill carrying its possessions, reads. “On this spot the pioneer women of Canterbury and their families rested after their climb from the port of Lyttelton, and gazed with awe, but with courage, upon the hills and plains of Canterbury, where they were to make their home.”
The Canterbury Pioneer Women’s Memorial official opening 14 December 1940
Full story about the opening can be read here: Papers Past, Press, 16 December 1940
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