Bay Harbour: February 02, 2022

Wednesday February 2 2022 Bay Harbour News
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
NEWS 3
Book dedicated to history icon
• By Kristie Boland
SHIRLEY MCEWAN found she
was having conversations with
young Lyttelton residents who
knew little about life at the port
prior to the road tunnel.
So she wrote a book – Rail
before Road – to inform people
what Lyttelton was like as she
knew it.
McEwan, who writes under
her maiden name Buchanan,
refers to a time before the
construction of the road tunnel,
which opened in 1964. Back then
the only means of travel to the
city had been by train through
the railway tunnel.
“I found talking to people who
now live in Lyttelton that is since
the road tunnel went through,
they have no idea that we only
ever had trains,” said McEwan.
The book tells stories of a
generation that lived vastly
different to how Lyttelton
residents do now.
“It’s about the freedom that we
had as children, the lifestyle that
we lived and our dependence on
rail travel.
“Life has changed completely,
but I still think that young
people need to know how it used
to be,” said McEwan.
The book was inspired by
and dedicated to the late Baden
Norris.
Norris was the curator of
Lyttelton Museum, a local
historian, polar adventurer and
recipient of the Antarctic Medal
“Over the years he was so,
so helpful. I always knew if I
needed anything historical I
could go and ask Baden.
“Lyttelton wouldn’t have had a
museum of any sort if it hadn’t of
been for his driving force.”
All proceeds from the sales
of the book will go towards the
rebuild for Lyttelton Museum.
“It just seemed to be a good
way to help them to raise funds,”
said McEwan.
McEwan now resides at the
Rhodes on Cashmere retirement
village.
Said the 82-year-old: “You can
take the girl out of Lyttelton but
you can’t take Lyttelton out of
the girl.”
“Anybody who has ever lived
in Lyttelton knows that Lyttelton
remains part of your heart. It
was always a place with soul
where everybody looked after
everybody else, it was just a big
family.”
McEwan and the museum
are asking for help from anyone
who lived in Lyttelton pre-road
LANDMARK:
The first
electric train
went through
the railway
tunnel at
Lyttelton on
February 14,
1929.
PHOTO:
FLETCHER
SERIES, TE
ŪAKA THE
LYTTELTON
MUSEUM
REF:14985.224
tunnel. When the museum was
damaged in the 2011 earthquake,
photographs were rescued by the
fire brigade but the captions were
not.
“They attempted to put on
captions but they really need
people my age to know what
most of those photographs were
about,” said McEwan.
She asks anyone prepared to
help with adding captions to
the photograph to email her at
shirleymcewan@outlook.com or
call the museum.
Rail before Road is available
for purchase at Leslie’s
•We have TWO copies of
the book, Road before Rail,
to give away. If you’d like
to go in the draw to WIN
one, email giveaways@
starmedia.kiwi with Road
before Rail in the subject
line or write to Road
before Rail Book Giveaway
Star Media PO Box 1467
Christchurch 8140. To be
eligible for the draw all
entries must include your
name, address and contact
number. Entries close
Tuesday, February 15.
Bookshop in Lyttelton, Takenote
in Ferrymead and Smiths
Bookshop in The Tannery. The
Lyttelton Museum also has
copies for sale.
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