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Cust – Anglican Cemetery (Tippings Road)

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Cust was originally known as Moeraki Downs, then as Middleton-on-the-Cust, it being the middle town between Oxford and Rangiora.

The current name comes from Sir Edward Cust, a member of the Canterbury Association which organised the immigrant ships and early settlement of Canterbury in 1850.

The land for this cemetery, one of three in Cust, was given to the St James Anglican Parish in 1870 by Mr. John Terry Murphy of local property,“Tara”.

Tragically, he was the first person to be buried there in 1872.

A larger, public cemetery, on higher ground, was opened in 1880 – this is known as the Cust and West Eyreton Public Cemetery.

To learn more about the history of Cust and those who lived and died there visit or contact Cust Museum, open 2pm – 4pm on Sundays or by arrangement.

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High-resolution photographs of the grave are available, plus one or two of the cemetery/church if applicable. This includes a full transcription, particularly for those stones that are hard to read or eroded.

Please consider a small donation to keep the site and the work going

Email me for gravestone images: moorfnz@gmail.com

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BAKER, Charles Henry Manders (d. 17th November, 1999)

BEATTIE, John (d. 29th August, 1894). Obituary in the Star (Canterbury) on 1st October, 1894 (thanks to fellow Canterbury history buff, Sandy Wilson, for the obit link!). Married Agnes McGenon.

BLUNDEN, Leonard Walter (d. 4th October, 1917). Killed in action in Belgium. Leonard enlisted for the Army on 27th June 1916. His Army record has been digitised and can be accessed here. The records note he was killed in action on 12th October, 1917, different from that noted on his headstone.

BLUNDEN, Reginald (d. 3rd August, 1914)

BOYD, Mary Ann (d. 16th August, 1891)

BRADLEY, Esther (d. 5th May, 1910)

BROWN, Elizabeth (d. 7th March, 1902)

BROWN, Margaret (d. 11th July, 1887). Aged 7 years.

BUNZ (family stone) – Arthur (d. ?), Mabel (d. 1982), Leighton (d. 1977)

COLLIER, Sarah (d. 6th November, 1872). One of the earliest burials in this cemetery.

COOPER, Florence (d. 1918)

COOPER, Florence Mabel (d. 4th October, 1950)

COOPER, Henry James (d. 14th August, 1884)

Via PapersPast: Star , Issue 5081, 15 August 1884, Page 3

COOPER, James Gadsby (d. 18th October, 1909)

DOBSON, Mary Trevor (d. 24th May, 1875). Age 11 months.

FOX, Arthur Stewart (d. 15th September, 1913). Vicar of Cust 1896 – 1913.

FRIZZELL, James Wilson (d. 1st December, 1937)

FRIZZELL, John (d. 13th August, 1921)

FRIZZELL, John Richard (d. 22nd March, 1957)

FRIZZELL, Robert (d. 28th September, 1942)

GALLETLY, Alexander (d. 23rd March, 1880)

GARLAND, Alexander (d. 6th April, 1881)

GARLAND, David James (d. 7th April, 1903)

Star , Issue 9206, 8 April 1908, Page 3

GARLAND, Georgi Alexander (d. 8th October, 1918)

GARLAND, Hellen (d. 1st February, 1910)

GARLAND, John (d. 6th August, 1921)

GARLAND, Mary (no date of death given)

GRAHAM, Alexander (d. 25th May, 1955). Born in Kingston, Jamaica.

GRAHAM, Ian Cunninghame (d. 22nd July, 1989)

HIGGINS, Robert (d. 22nd January, 1888)

Star , Issue 6143, 24 January 1888, Page 2

HIGGINS, Robert Luke (d. 9th November, 1892)

Star , Issue 6000, 8 August 1887, Page 3

HURLEY, Cornelius (d. 1950)

HURLY, Ann (d. 11th January, 1903)

Via PapersPast: Star , Issue 7603, 13 January 1903, Page 3

KING, Amy Rose (d. 3rd December, 1888)

KING, Robert (d. 2nd February, 1895) Age 5 months.

KING, Thomas (d. 30th March, 1897)

Star , Issue 5835, 31 March 1897, Page 3

KINGSBURY, Henry (d. 8th August, 1892)

LINDSAY, Charles (d. 1936)

LINDSAY, Charles Frederick (d. 24th April, 1995)

LINDSAY, Eleanor (d. 17th April, 1970)

MAINDONALD, Unknown (d. 13th June, 1933). Wife of Dan Maindonald.

McCULLOUGH, Thomas (d. 7th February, 1878)

McKIBBIN, Hugh (d. 29th January, *1873).
His arrival in 1860 on the Roman Emporer with his wife and one child is documented here. *However, things aren’t always what they seem. A blog reader who has researched Hugh McKIBBIN as part of their family history contacted me to tell me that Hugh McKIBBIN’s death was in 1893, not 1873 as is on the headstone. The headstone is obviously a replacement for an earlier stone that was damaged or weathered, and the date transcribed incorrectly. Furthermore, I was informed that, while Hugh and his wife Mary left Ireland with one child, they arrived in New Zealand with two as Mary McKIBBIN was born en route. Thank you to blog reader Gordon Fidler for providing me with this more accurate information.

MILNE, William (d. 31st January, 1885)

Via PapersPast: Star , Issue 5227, 5 February 1885, Page 2

MURPHY, John Terry (d. 1872). First burial in this cemetery.

NANKIVELL Ellen L (nee Wayland). (d. 23rd November, 1959)

PROUSE, William (d. 1st August, 1877). Age 4.

ROBERTS, John (d. 21st December, 1880)

Also mentioned on the gravestone is Edward Percy Roberts, John’s son, who died of heart disease age 11.

Oxford Observer, Volume 1, Issue XI, 12 October 1889, Page 4

SCHULTER, Thelma Ann (d. 9th December, 2000)

THOMPSON, Leo Ernest (d. 14th November, 1995)

TIPPING, B Blaney (d. 31st July, 1888)

TIPPING, James Cobourg (d. 6th February, 1913)

TIPPING, Kathleen Mary Archer (d. 6th September, 1946)

WALKER, Thomas (d. 20th October, 1909)

WARD, William (d. 25th November, 1935)

WAYLAND, Joseph (Jnr.) (d. 4th August, 1883)

Via PapersPast: Star , Issue 4763, 6 August 1883, Page 2

WHITEHOUSE, Suzanne Mary (d. 20th February, 2006)

WHYTE, George (d. 4th July, 1900)

Via PapersPast: Hawke’s Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11519, 26 April 1900, Page 4

Via PapersPast: Star , Issue 6842, 9 July 1900, Page 3

WILSON, Hannah (d. 9th July, 1879)

WOLFF, Hedwig Marie (d. 8th August, 1975)

WOLFF, Johanna (d. 3rd August, 1889). Inscription written in German.

WOLFF, Johannes Rudolf (d. 16th September, 1920). Wolff’s Road, located midway between Oxford and Cust, is named after this family. Horrelville Johannes Rudolph (Hans) Wolff from the Hartz Mountains in Germany. For years he leased part of Run no. 78. Descendants later purchased this property, which was south of the Eyre River. His family built a foot swing bridge across the river, west of the road ford.

WOLFF, Louise (d. 24th June, 1888)

WOLFF, Rudolph George (d. 9th April, 1963)

WOOD, Brenda Joan (d. 30th October, 2008)

WOOD, Jane (d. 1894)

WOOD, Louisa Jane (d. 1946)

WOOD, Mary Agnes (d. 1936)

WOOD, Raymond (d. 1920)

WOOD, Samuel (d. 1934)

WOODFIELD, Ernest Alfred (d. 1965)

WOODFIELD, Leonie Beatrice (d. 13th March, 1942)

WOODFIELD, Mary Ann (d. 30th June, 1927)

WOODFIELD, Owen Theodore (d. 3rd September, 2009)

WOODFIELD, *(John) Thomas (d. 13th October, 1908)

In 1858 John Thomas Woodfield  married Jemima Iliffe in Leicester, and they came out to NZ on the Victory in 1859. They settled in Oxford where they ran the East Oxford Post Office  and store, and invested in a flax mill, and a sawmill with several blocks of forest to mill.

*John Thomas, known as Thomas, was very active in various community endeavours, including the school, the Oddfellows lodge, and St Andrews Anglican church, where played the organ, and their son Philip was one of the first children baptised.  Sadly, though, Jemima died, as did Philip and Jemima Jnr.  The flaxmill failed due to a spoiled cargo and falling market, the sawmill burned down along with the forest, the shop went bankrupt when the post office was shifted to the new railway station, and  the church was blown off its foundations by a Nor-Wester. John Thomas married Mary Ann Weeber in 1873, and in 1880 the family moved to Springwell Farm, on the south side of Tram road near the end of Woodfield’s Road, and became active in the local Methodist church. John Thomas is buried here at Cust because, although Jemima and the children had been buried in Oxford,  he did not  want to be buried there “where all (my) troubles were” .

With his 2 wives he had 18 children, 14 of whom survived to marry, leaving 1400 descendants as at 1996  when the family put together a book on “The Woodfields of Oxford New Zealand”. Also buried here are his second wife Mary Ann, his son in law Rudolf George Wolff, his sons Rupert Arthur and  Ernest Alfred Woodfield, and two of Ernest’s children,  Leonie Beatrice and Owen Theodore.

(Many thanks to Grant Read of Christchurch, NZ,  for providing this background information).

Please consider a small donation to keep the site and the work going

Discussion

23 thoughts on “Cust – Anglican Cemetery (Tippings Road)”

  1. Fabulous work 🙂

    Posted by Sarndra | December 12, 2010, 8:43 am
    Reply to this comment

  2. What a great idea. These cemeteries are harder get to for people who live out of the area
    Margaret

    Posted by Margaret Mundy | December 21, 2010, 1:12 am
    Reply to this comment

  3. Thank you both very much indeed for your kind comments. I was inspired by my personal quest to find my Anglo-India relatives in India – it’s near on impossible to get information about burials, not least a photograph.

    There is so much genealogical information to be gleaned from inscriptions – occupations, places of birth and even how they died.

    I hope my efforts will help those who can’t get to Canterbury, and give them a glimpse of their ancestors’ final resting place.

    Helen Leggatt/Hunting Kiwis

    Posted by hleggatt | December 21, 2010, 1:22 am
    Reply to this comment

  4. Correction for Mary Trevor, should be Mary Trevor DOBSON Bd 24/5/1875 a 11 months
    Also no photo of KINGSBURY Francis and Daisy’s headstone.
    Bernard Kingsbury Trustee in charge of the Cust Anglican Cemetery Tippings road.

    Posted by Bernard Kingsbury | April 16, 2011, 2:25 am
    Reply to this comment

  5. Thanks for your correction, Bernard, and always good to receive additional information I can add to the blog. I will check for KINGSBURY Francis & Daisy, unsure as to why they are not listed. Cheers.

    Posted by hleggatt | April 16, 2011, 2:59 am
    Reply to this comment

  6. Dear Helen
    It was a great article in The Press and I hope it will create interest in our cemeteries. It should also be mentioned that the Victorian motifs and symbols on headstones and memorials can also tell us something about the person who is buried. Unfortunately in most cemeteries there are many unmarked graves with no headstones so researchers have to still look up these records. The Waimakariri Genealogy Society at Rangiora have recorded all the cemetery headstone and plot information in their district. Bernard Kingsbury

    Posted by Bernard Kingsbury | April 17, 2011, 2:44 am
    Reply to this comment

    • Dear Bernard,
      I shall be adding information regarding the motifs and symbols found on older headstones as the blog evolves. I’m also interested in building up historical information on the undertakers and stonemasons of the time. Does the Waimakariri Genealogy Society hold such records?

      Waddington cemetery recently cordoned off several small areas of the cemetery and have now updated their cemetery map at the entrance to show these areas, some of which were previously hidden in undergrowth, as containing unmarked graves.

      Helen

      Posted by hleggatt | April 17, 2011, 12:07 pm
      Reply to this comment

  7. Helen,
    A very good reference book for understanding the symbols from Classical pagan and Jewish/Christian sources on headstones is “Understanding Headstones” A dictionary of Necroiconology by L.M.Seaton. August 2000.
    Bernard Kingsbury

    Posted by Bernard Kingsbury | May 24, 2011, 8:55 am
    Reply to this comment

  8. Hullo Helen
    It is a good idea to always put the source of your newspaper death notices, obituaries etc. eg Lyttelton Times, 12th December, 1895, Page 3. Dates are really important. Bernard Kingsbury

    Posted by Bernard Kingsbury | June 15, 2011, 8:45 am
    Reply to this comment

  9. William PROUSE was born 7 July 1873 and the son of Thomas [1830-1908] and Margaret [c1840 – 1936] PROUSE nee DICK. Information i have is that they are buried with their son at Cust. I don’t know how correct that is.

    Margarets parents “arrived on the ‘Bengal Merchant’ 20-2-1840 and she was born 17-9-1841, reputed to be the first white child to be born in NZ”. That was an excerpt from a book by one of the family members. It was apparently full of mistakes relating to the EVANS family of whom my connection is and who marry in to the PROUSE family, so i’d take it with a grain of salt!

    Cheers
    S

    Posted by Sarndra | August 8, 2011, 11:30 am
    Reply to this comment

  10. William Prouse died 1/8/1877 and is buried in plot no 13 in the Tippings road Anglican cemetery at Cust.
    Plots 11 and 12 were purchased by the Prouse family and may be unoccupied as they are unmarked.
    Thomas Prouse died 22/10/1908 aged 78 years and is buried in plot no 12 in the Presbyterian section of the Cust Public Cemetery.
    Margaret his wife is buried alongside in plot no 13. She died 19/12/1936 a 96 yrs.
    Bernard Kingsbury
    Archivist Cust Museum

    Posted by Bernard Kingsbury | October 11, 2011, 8:20 am
    Reply to this comment

    • Hi Bernard – I was wondering if there are any photos available of Margaret & Thomas’s headstones. Margaret was the sister of my great great grandmother, Sarah.
      Thanks
      Linda Baker

      Posted by Linda Baker | May 30, 2012, 5:40 am
      Reply to this comment

      • Hi Linda
        The headstone of Thomas and Margaret is on the Cust/West Eyreton cemetery listing. They are both on one stone.
        Regards
        Helen
        Hunting Kiwis

        Posted by hleggatt | June 4, 2012, 5:02 am

  11. Thank you for the wonderful photos of these headstones.
    I have visited this cemetery some time ago.
    But now have photos of my ancestors “GARLAND’ family.
    Alexander & Hellen Garland being my g.grandparents
    Alexander their son my grandfather.
    Mary Garland is my aunt who is the child of Alexander and Margaret Minnie (nee FREE) GARLAND.
    Hilda ‘Mary’ Garland died at 2 1/2 years old on 1st September 1913.

    It was sad to hear of the fire at “Bankhead” home of the Garland’s at Cust last year.

    Thank you.
    Helen Callaghan

    Posted by Helen Callaghan | March 25, 2012, 5:42 am
    Reply to this comment

  12. Hi Helen
    Thank you very much for that
    Regards
    Linda

    Posted by Linda Baker | June 4, 2012, 8:40 am
    Reply to this comment
  13. Reply to this comment

    • Thank you Gayle! I have yet to delve into the social history of this cemetery, and I wish I had the time to start soon but, alas, my Uni studies (history, of course!) are taking up a lot of my time.

      Posted by hleggatt | April 22, 2015, 6:28 am
      Reply to this comment

  14. Have just recently discovered family history of the Collier family- Moeraki Downs and good to see Sarahs grave-
    My Great great grandfather her son Richard
    Thank you

    Posted by Raewyn McRitchie | January 26, 2021, 7:42 am
    Reply to this comment

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