Waterton is a former town in the

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

region of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. It is still officially recognised as a locality.

Geography

Waterton is located 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 ...

south of Ashburton on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, between the

Ashburton River / Hakatere The Ashburton River / Hakatere is a river in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, flowing across Mid Canterbury from the Southern Alps to the Pacific Ocean. The official name of the river was amended to become a dual name by the Ngāi Tahu Cl ...

and

Hinds River The Hinds River (Māori: Hekeao) is a river in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Its north and south branches drain the eastern flank of the Moorhouse Range, part of the Southern Alps, and their confluence is near Anama and Mayfield. T ...

. Nearby localities include Ashton and Wheatstone to the northeast, Flemington to the north, Eiffelton to the northwest and Longbeach to the southwest.

History

Waterton was founded in the second half of the 19th century as the Canterbury Plains were settled by European immigrants. By 1888, it had its own town hall. Catholics in the area of Longbeach and Waterton complained to the administration of the Ashburton parish that

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

had not been said in their area. Accordingly, Mass was held in the Waterton Hall, with an attendance of 60; it later was held in Eiffelton rather than Waterton.Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
"Eiffelton"
accessed 23 January 2008. At its height, Waterton was a service town for the immediately surrounding rural area. It was home to 235 people and had amenities such as a general store, post office, public library, hotel, and school. Economic activity was related to

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

, with an

abattoir In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a meat ...

and a flour mill both located in the town."End of Waterton"
''The Courier'' (August 2006), accessed 23 January 2008. However, during the later half of the 20th century, Waterton severely declined.

Today

Waterton is effectively a ghost town. In the early 2000s, the land titles of the town's former lots were amalgamated by the owner and then divided into four new " lifestyle blocks" for development. The new owners appealed to the Ashburton District Council to revoke the designation of the town's former streets, which by that stage were merely unformed roads, so that they could be merged into the new properties. In August 2006, the Council granted this request and stopped the roads. Few remnants of Waterton are now left apart from the remains of the town hall, and the local cemetery is not far from the site of the township. An

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church once located in Waterton has been transferred to the Plains Vintage Railway in Tinwald.

References

{{Ashburton District, New Zealand Ashburton District Populated places in the Canterbury Region Ghost towns in New Zealand