Location
402 - 418 Selwyn Street (between Disraeli Street and Fairfield Avenue), Addington, Christchurch 8024
- Brief History of Addington Cemetery
- Addington Cemetery
- Addington Cemetery Plan - Canterbury Stories
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Addington Cemetery plot map [791.64KB PDF]
A digitised plot map from the CCC Archives and Addington Cemetery plan [282.59KB PDF] from the Christchurch City Council
These maps were created by Christchurch City Council and give a general reference to where a person is buried. No block references are found on the cemeteries' database and graves are found by following a running number.
There is a different map in the New Zealand Society of Genealogists' tombstone transcripts book of Addington Cemetery which enables surviving gravestones to be found. - Interments are listed in the Christchurch City Council Cemeteries Database
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Addington Cemetery tour guide [258KB PDF]
Guide based on cemetery tours that take place as part of Christchurch Heritage Festival events. The guides are from the research and notes of Richard L. N. Greenaway. - Transcriptions of headstones by the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, Canterbury branch
- Blood & memory: Victorian colonial death, memorial practices, and the dynamics of local society at Christchurch's Addington Cemetery. 2019. MA thesis at University of Canterbury by Karell William King.
Brief History
The Addington Cemetery was established in 1858 when the Scottish Presbyterians of St Andrew’s Church purchased land for a cemetery in Selwyn Street. Although not the first cemetery in Christchurch, Addington was in fact the first “public” cemetery, “being open to all persons of any religious community” and allowing the performance of any religious service “not contrary to public decency”.
The Presbyterians called it the 'Christchurch Public Cemetery' as people from all denominations could be buried side by side but Addington was commonly known as the 'Scotch Cemetery'.
The other major cemetery at Barbadoes Street primarily provided for Anglican services, thus many of the more radical personalities, who were not prepared to conform to Anglican services, opted for the Addington Cemetery. The profits made from the purchasing of plots went towards the acquisition of sites for religious and educational purposes, the relief of the poor and provision of bursaries for the Christchurch High School (today known as Hagley High School).
The first burial took place on the 10th of November 1858. The cemetery has several persons of note buried within its grounds including activist Kate Sheppard, Christchurch Mayor Tommy Taylor and members of the pioneer family, the Deans.
Its plots were taken up over a relatively short period of time. By 1980 it was made a ‘closed cemetery’, meaning that no further burials were permitted, with the exception of certain people who own existing family plots.
In 1947 the Christchurch City Council assumed management of the cemetery.
