You are invited to visit the Linwood Cemetery in Bromley, Christchurch, and look at the old headstones. As an electrician in Bromley, we like to support local charities and organizations.
The people buried there helped to build Christchurch and New Zealand. You can learn about them and their lives by looking at the headstones.
Those buried or memorialised at Linwood Cemetery include:
- explorer-surveyor Arthur Dudley Dobson (of Arthur’s Pass fame),
- Herewaka Porourangi Potai, the daughter of Ngati Porou leader Tama-i-whakanehua-i-te-rangi,
- at least twelve Christchurch mayors and many Local Councillors,
- several Members of Parliament,
- bishops and religious ministers,
- the Peacock family whose philanthropy included the iconic Peacock Fountain in the Botanical Gardens,
- Thomas John Edmonds the founder of the ‘Sure to Rise’ Edmonds Flour Factory,
- graves re-sited from the 19th century Jewish Cemetery in Hereford Street and the only specific Jewish burial ground in Christchurch,
- the first Grand Master of NZ Freemasonry and many other freemasons,
- 41 original settlers from the ‘First Four Ships’,
- the highest number of WW1 memorials in any cemetery in Christchurch and includes buried in the cemetery at least one who received the Military Cross and one of the first 100 NZ pilots,
- 250 people identified to have signed the NZ suffrage petition,
- many ‘first generation’ New Zealanders,
- 2 of the sextons who looked after the cemetery,
- the first Muslim to be buried in New Zealand
The main Anglican area is to the south of the cemetery; Blocks 1-16A (‘up the hill’), 17, 18, 20-22, 24-26. This strange numbering is because the areas are vertical ‘slices’. On the north side (Bromley Park) Blocks 46 and 47 are also Church of England.
The two large community plots of the Anglican Sisters of the Community of the Sacred Name (CSN) are next to each other where Block 47 joins Block 48 at the border with the Bromley Park playing field.
The Catholic portion begins half way up the hill on the Bromley Park side (nearest Buckleys Road) and extends to the tree line at the northern end.
Non-denominational and new graves. Close to the car park and to the left of the path that leads parallel to Buckleys Road and Bromley Park, is Block A. These quarter plots were set aside for people who did not want to, or could not be, buried in an area designated by faith.
Linwood Cemetery is in Bromley, next to Bromley Park which is very confusing when the later Bromley Cemetery (1918) borders Linwood Avenue.
Further confusion arises with Bromley Cemetery having Canterbury Crematorium opposite it’s main gates with Woodlawn Memorial Gardens for ashes behind it.
This has led to a colloquial mix up of names; Bromley Cemetery being referred to as ‘the old Linwood Cemetery’; Canterbury Crematorium as ‘Linwood Crematorium’; Woodlawn Memorial Gardens as (the new) Linwood Cemetery and Linwood Cemetery as Bromley Cemetery.
Prior to the formation of the Friends of the Linwood Cemetery Charitable Trust, the cemetery had fallen into disrepair through neglect and vandalism. Today a small group of volunteers work to raise the profile of this important heritage site and greenspace.
Our vision is to conserve and maintain the heritage of Linwood Cemetery for future generations.
Contact Friends of Linwood Cemetery Charitable Trust
31 Butterfield Avenue
Linwood, Canterbury 8062, New Zealand
Friends of Linwood Cemetery Charitable Trust
Chairperson: Craig Cormack
Secretary: Shannon Hall-McLachlan
All enquiries to be emailed to:
linwoodcemeterynz@gmail.com
