Chertsey is a town in the

Ashburton District Ashburton District is a territorial authority district in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It encompasses the town of Ashburton, a number of small towns and settlements and the surrounding rural area, roughly coterminou ...

, of

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South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It is located close to

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbere ...

, which bypasses the town to the west, between Ashburton and

Rakaia Rakaia is a town seated close to the southern banks of the Rakaia River on the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand's South Island, approximately 57 km south of Christchurch on State Highway 1 and the Main South Line. Immediately north of the ...

on the

Canterbury Plains The Canterbury Plains () are an area in New Zealand centred in the Mid Canterbury, to the south of the city of Christchurch in the Canterbury region. Their northern extremes are at the foot of the Hundalee Hills in the Hurunui District, and in t ...

History

European settlement

In 1872 the first Crown land grant was opened and the following year W.A. Brown took up land in Chertsey. He would name the district Chertsey after the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in England where his wife was born and where he had lived. In 1876 Thomas Wilkinson took up land in the district, and the following year the village was surveyed and officially named Chertsey. A 21-room hotel was built along with a blacksmith and a post office. This was shortly followed by a butcher's shop, two general stores, a bakery and a coal and timber yard.

Oil drilling

The Canterbury Petroleum Prospecting Company started drilling for oil in 1914 and it was ceased in 1921. Oil was found at 420 metres below at Chertsey 1. In September 1921 a drill bit had broken down the well and with the sandy ground surrounding the well they were unable to retrieve it. In the late 1960s J.D. George 1 well was drilled about 10 km south of Chertsey 1, oil seepages were found at 1650 metres but this well was discontinued.

The fire of 1926

"The Big Fire" of 1926 had devastating effects on the Chertsey district. The fire was caused by a train starting at the Chertsey township and travelled 20 km to the coast. When it reached Taverners Road several kilometres from its start point the front of the fire was over 3 km wide. One local farmer lost his life while trying to plough a fire break when he was overcome by the speed of the fast moving fire. Many of the districts farms lost a significant amount of livestock. The Minister of Railways at the time was reluctant to acknowledge responsibility, but on the intervention of Prime Minister

Gordon Coates Joseph Gordon Coates (3 February 1878 – 27 May 1943) served as the 21st prime minister of New Zealand from 1925 to 1928. He was the third successive Reform prime minister since 1912. Born in rural Northland, Coates grew up on a cattle run ...

payment for about half of the assessed damaged was received.

Post World War II

By the 1960s only the Chertsey general store, Chertsey Hotel and the Agricultural engineering manufacture remained in the community. Following transport advances and with the development of large supermarkets in nearby Ashburton, Chertsey store was forced to close in the 1990s. The Chertsey Tavern closed its doors in 2013 leaving Chertsey's second hand bookstore the only remaining business. With New Zealand's dairy industry boom, Chertsey has seen large population growths, with many farms converting from sheep and mixed farming to dairying.

Education

Chertsey School is a contributing primary school catering for years 1 to 6. It has students as of The school opened in 1878.

Sports

Chertsey Domain has held the majority of Chertsey community sports since the late 1800s. Rugby union was first played in the late 1880s. This continued up until

World War 1 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Rugby League is the only current team sport representing Chertsey, the Chertsey Oilers currently play in the Aoraki Rugby League competition. Softball was played in Chertsey in the late 1990s, with the "Chertsey Chuckers" competing in the Ashburton Softball competition. Cricket was set up in the 1970s and was a regular feature at the Chertsey domain throughout the 1970s. Harness racing is a popular sport in the district, and in 1994 Chertsey trainer Colin Calvert won the

New Zealand Trotting Cup The New Zealand Cup for standardbred horses, also known as either the New Zealand Trotting Cup or the New Zealand Pacing Cup is a Group One (G1) harness race held annually by the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club at Addington Raceway in Chri ...

with Bee Bee Cee, Greyhound racing is also held at the Chertsey domain greyhound track.

Notable residents

* Patrick "Peter" Harvey (3 April 1880 – 29 October 1949), Played rugby union for both the Chertsey and Rakaia clubs. Selected for the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

, gaining a test cap against the touring

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side in 1904. *

Clinton Stringfellow John Clinton Stringfellow (26 February 1905 – 4 January 1959) was a New Zealand rugby union player. A fullback and centre, Stringfellow represented Wairarapa and, briefly, Bush at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national ...

(26 February 1905 – 4 January 1959), born in Chertsey. In 1905 Stringfellow was a member of the New Zealand national side, on their 1929 tour of Australia. On that tour, he played seven matches, including two internationals, scoring 16 points. * William Lister, 1935 and 1938 New Zealand Light heavyweight champion first winning the title in 1935. Lister again won the title by beating his brother, Tom, in 1938. * Tom Lister, 1938 New Zealand light heavyweight champion, son Tom Lister was a New Zealand rugby union representative playing 8 test matches for the

from 1969-1971. Another son,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, was a professional golfer. * Catherine "Kate" Wilkinson (born 3 August 1957) was a

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

New Zealand House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes Law of New Zealand, laws, provides Ministers of the New Zealand Government, ministers to form Cabinet of New Zealand, Cabinet, and supervises the ...

for the National Party from 2005 until her retirement in 2014.

Demographics

The Chertsey statistical area covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². The statistical area had a population of 1,611 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 9 people (0.6%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 189 people (13.3%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 600 households. There were 867 males and 747 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.16 males per female. The median age was 34.6 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 381 people (23.6%) aged under 15 years, 294 (18.2%) aged 15 to 29, 780 (48.4%) aged 30 to 64, and 156 (9.7%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 83.1% European/Pākehā, 7.3% Māori, 0.9% Pacific peoples, 13.0% Asian, and 1.9% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 21.4%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 45.1% had no religion, 46.6% were Christian, 1.1% were Hindu, 0.2% were Muslim, 0.4% were Buddhist and 2.2% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 210 (17.1%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 228 (18.5%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $42,600, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 735 (59.8%) people were employed full-time, 234 (19.0%) were part-time, and 24 (2.0%) were unemployed.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20111108160842/http://www.nzs.com/new-zealand-maps/canterbury/chertsey/ {{Ashburton District, New Zealand Ashburton District Populated places in Canterbury, New Zealand