Barkers Lane in the suburb of New Brighton / Red Zone, Christchurch

Barkers Lane in New Brighton / Red Zone. Barker’s Road and Barkers Road. Named after Enoch Barker (1830-1892) and his brother, John George Barker (1840-1917). Enoch Barker trained as a gardener at Chatsworth, England, the Duke of Devonshire’s house. After emigrating to Canterbury, he was appointed the first Government gardener in 1860 and planted many of the first trees in Hagley Park and the Botanic Gardens. He took up Rural Section 2298, 20 acres near the “River Avon, East Christchurch Road” and in 1867 began market gardening in the Burwood/New Brighton area with his brother John. He was also a director of the New Brighton Tramway Company. He later drowned in the Avon River. Barker’s Road is first mentioned in the Star in 1894 in a report of a meeting of the Avon Road Board. Legally stopped on 21 August 1999, becoming Barkers Lane. Physically stopped once the new link between Travis Road and New Brighton Road was opened.A huge amount of information from the library website and I found the same mention of the street in Papers Past that the library noted. Also in Papers Past in January 1892 there is mention of Enoch Barker’s body being found floating in the Avon River near the Bower Hotel. It gives his age as 62 and that he was a farmer as well as owning a store on New Brighton Rd. Mentioned that he was the former curator of the Christchurch Domain. A few days later there was an obituary which said that he was buried at Burwood. Gave a brief history of his life and that he arrived in NZ on the Strathmore and was employed by W S Moorhouse as a gardener and later he designed and supervised the aying out of the Domain Garden. He built the first house in New Brighton 30 years earlier and was a director of the Pier Company. Note the Christchurch Domain mentioned is now called the Botanic Gardens. The obituary made a mistake about which ship Enoch arrived on as he came out on the Strallallan that arrived in NZ in January 1859. His wife died on board and he was left with two young daughters. He quickly remarried within the year.This street obviously has no houses any longer and I couldn’t find out how many houses were here but suspect there weren’t many. Ground is quite boggy especially after how much rain we have had lately.5 commentsLikeCommentShare