The Star: February 08, 2024

The Star Thursday February 8 2024
20
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
There’s progress in Leeston, but
Leeston on the
Canterbury Plains isn’t
about the become
the new Lincoln or
Rolleston, yet postearthquake
expansion
is evident in the
traditional rural service
centre known for its war
memorial, speedway
and A&P show. Chris
Barclay reports
KEVIN TAYLOR personifies
how times don’t necessarily
change in Leeston. He has
marched in every Anzac Day
parade along High St to the war
memorial since 1945.
That same year he was coaxed
to join the Ellesmere Brass
Band – its wooden headquarters
still sit on a section at the intersection
of Messines and High Sts.
Messines was chosen in recognition
of the battleground in
west Flanders, Belgium, in June
1917, a prelude to the disaster at
Passchendaele. Gallipoli St runs
parallel.
In recent years Taylor, who
turned 89 on January 28, has
been entrusted with announcing
the names of the fallen from the
Great War.
Abbott, Ameral C to Withers,
Thomas W from Southbridge
Riding. Balloch, David to Upston,
Percival J (Irwell Riding), then
Aiken, Patrick to Warnock, John
(Leeston Riding).
It is a responsibility he has
embraced after spending 63 years
with the brass band.
Taylor joined as a 10-year-old:
Vacancies needed filling since 24
men and boys from the district
were killed in World War 2.
“Some members didn’t come
back from the war. The Salvation
Army was approached by the
Ellesmere Brass Band and five of
us out of the nine stayed,” said
Taylor, who spent 47 years as
drum major before retiring in
2007.
He first lived in Leeston in
1949, though prior to then he’d
go to the pictures on Saturday
night, a cinema at the Doyleston
end of High St.
Taylor even remembers his first
haircut as a four-year-old. The
barber shop is now a Chineserun
takeaway.
The former farmer and High
St butcher also notices Italian
street names like Da Vinci Ave
and Galileo Way in the Monticello
subdivision off
ENDURING MEMORIES: Long-time Leeston resident and
former Ellesmere Brass Band stalwart Kevin Taylor has
marched in every Anzac Day parade since 1945.
Manse Rd, unthinkable when he
was growing up pre, during and
post-wartime.
In anyone’s language it’s a sign
of progress. Methodical rather
than seismic, since the Canterbury
earthquakes.
Taylor is aware of Rolleston’s
rampant expansion, though
doubts the same, some say fate,
awaits Leeston.
“It’ll never happen. They
call it progress, and it is
progressing, but there’s a limit
to the population you can
put in Leeston because of the
amenities,” he said.
The Leeston War Memorial.