Bay Harbour: December 20, 2023
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VOLUNTEERS and city council<br />
staff are restoring a Sumner<br />
landmark, the historic lychgate<br />
on the site of the<br />
now-demolished All Saints<br />
Church in Wakefield Ave.<br />
The lychgate was built in<br />
1944 in memory of 28-year-old<br />
Flying Officer Lister Charles<br />
Mulholland, a former All<br />
Saints Church choirmaster<br />
and organist who was killed<br />
during World War Two when<br />
his Hudson bomber crashed<br />
into the sea near Espiritu Santo<br />
(Vanuatu) in 1942. The bodies of<br />
the crew were never recovered.<br />
The lychgate, rock wall and<br />
a memorial garden containing<br />
the ashes of 30 parishioners are<br />
all that remain of the church<br />
that once played a prominent<br />
role in the weddings, funerals<br />
and worship of many Sumner<br />
residents but was demolished<br />
in <strong>20</strong>15 after suffering damage<br />
in the February 22, <strong>20</strong>11<br />
earthquake.<br />
As well as the church, the<br />
wall and lychgate were marked<br />
for destruction in red zone<br />
clearance plans. They were<br />
saved after a campaign by local<br />
residents with the help of then<br />
Port Hills MP, Ruth Dyson.<br />
Since the earthquakes, the<br />
lychgate and memorial garden<br />
have been fenced off in the<br />
rockfall hazard zone under the<br />
Sumner cliffs. But time and neglect<br />
have taken their toll, with<br />
the lychgate in urgent need of<br />
restaining and broken slates on<br />
the roof requiring replacement.<br />
The memorial garden had also<br />
become overgrown.<br />
A working bee last week of<br />
Sumner and Redcliffs residents<br />
and city council staff, co-ordinated<br />
by council community<br />
partnerships ranger Sarah Mankelow,<br />
restained the lychgate<br />
and weeded the rock wall and<br />
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memorial garden.<br />
Next year, staff from the<br />
council’s heritage department<br />
will repair the lychgate roof and<br />
restore a commemorative plaque<br />
to Mulholland.<br />
“What we’ve done so far is<br />
wonderful. It has transformed<br />
the area and revived an important<br />
link with the past. It means<br />
a lot to us,” said Liz Conly, who<br />
helped organise the working bee<br />
and whose parents ashes are buried<br />
in the garden.<br />
Mankelow said a city council<br />
REFRESH: Volunteers with the<br />
restained and repainted lychgate.<br />
Above – Ruth Perkins, Patsy Hawke,<br />
Virginia Pretty and Liz Conly weed<br />
the memorial garden.<br />
Wednesday <strong>December</strong> <strong>20</strong> <strong>20</strong>23 <strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News<br />
proposal to enhance the area<br />
behind the lychgate with native<br />
plantings will go out for public<br />
feedback next year.<br />
It has also planned to allow<br />
better access to the lychgate and<br />
memorial garden.<br />
Relatives of those whose ashes<br />
are in the garden will be granted<br />
occasional access under council<br />
supervision to care for the site<br />
and remember their relatives,<br />
and it is hoped that the fence<br />
will eventually be moved behind<br />
the lychgate.<br />
NEWS 3<br />
In Brief<br />
Landmark restored to former glory MERRY CHRISTMAS<br />
Today’s <strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News is<br />
the last issue for <strong>20</strong>23. The paper<br />
returns on January 11. We wish<br />
our readers and advertisers a<br />
Merry Christmas and a Happy<br />
New Year, and an enjoyable and<br />
safe holiday break.<br />
BUS SHELTER TO BE<br />
BUILT IN NEW YEAR<br />
Construction of a new school<br />
bus shelter at the intersection of<br />
Summit and Okains <strong>Bay</strong>s Rds<br />
will start between January 15<br />
and 23. Work is expected to take<br />
a week.<br />
ESTUARY PEST PLANTS<br />
The Ōpāwaho Heathcote<br />
River Network wants the<br />
city council to speed up draft<br />
plans to address pest plants in<br />
the estuary and lower part of<br />
the river. Network secretary<br />
Malcolm Long addressed the<br />
Waihoro Spreydon-Cashmere-<br />
Heathcote Community Board on<br />
Thursday regarding the threat<br />
pest plants pose to biodiversity.<br />
The community board agreed<br />
to get advice from council staff<br />
regarding the issue.<br />
BOOK WINNERS<br />
The winners of Jane Robertson’s<br />
book Living Between Land<br />
& Sea giveaway are Missy<br />
Caughley of Rapaki and Teifryn<br />
Livingston of Woolston.<br />
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