The Bridle path (and other adventures)
Before the Bridlepath was built it was possible to take a longer, more difficult journey to Sumner and then on to Heathcote, where ferries could take you, and your belongings, further along what came to be known as the Avon River. The hope was that a Bridlepath would provide a short-cut, and was meant to be much more than a simple walking track.
Make the Road Passable
This letter from Chief Surveyor John Godley, written just one month before the arrival of the four ships, describes plans for creating a passable bridlepath for settlers from Lyttelton to the Canterbury Plains.
Joseph Thomas Esq Wellington November 14, 1850
Sir,
The local Government has placed at my disposal the sum of £2200, stipulating that, with the exception of the small amount required for building a store-house at Lyttelton, the whole shall be expended upon the continuation of the road from Lyttelton to Christchurch. I have therefore to instruct you to recommence operations upon the road immediately…you will keep in mind that the object to which your endeavours must now be directed is to make the road passable into the plains… If that sum be not sufficient to make it passable for carts, it will at least, I hope, be sufficient to open it for horses…(Signed) J.R. Godley
Source: J.R, Godley, Chief Surveyor’s and Agent Letter Book 1848 – 1851, Lyttelton.
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His task proved to be frustrating.
DISPATCH FROM MR. GODLEY
January 6th 1851
SIR,-…I informed the Association in my first dispatch, that I wished very much to have time and funds to finish the road before the arrival of the colonists. That dispatch did not arrive in England until too late for giving effect to the advice contained in it, and the result has been, as I foresaw, that we are involved in no small difficulty… the bridle-path will be finished next week; at present, indeed, it could be but very little used if it were finished, as there are hardly any horses in the settlement belonging to the Association.
Source: Canterbury Papers No. 5 and 6, Canterbury Association, 1850..
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