Time: 2 hours and 14 minutes (includes a loong lunch)
Distance: 4.7 km
Start: Glentunnel Museum, 3 Philip Street, Glentunnel
Finish: Same place. It's a loop.
Date: Friday 3rd July 2025
Sometime between 1861 - 1868, Julian Von Haast (German explorer, surveyor, geologist and founder of Canterbury Museum - currently residing in the Stanmore Road cemetry), discovered coal seams and clay in the Malvern Hills. Thus the nearby town of Glentunnel, with it's backbone of mining (coal a.k.a. black diamonds) and pottery (pipes, bricks and chimneys), sprang into life. Both industries carried on until relatively recently. The Homebush Brick, Tile, Terra-cotta and Pottery Works was shut down and demolished in the 1980's and, majority Singaporian owned, Malvern Hills Coal Mine (a.k.a. Canterbury Coal Mine) closed in 2021 for environmental reasons.
Today was one of those freezing cold winter mornings, when you prefer to stay cosy in bed, but instead we were off to walk the Glentunnel Heritage Trail - a wee gem - hidden in the heart of the Canterbury Plains. The starting point is the Glentunnel Museum on Philips Street and, from there the nifty Township Trails Selwyn App guides you through 14 historical sites. We were intently discussing the joys of sitting in a hotpool with "wine and dips served on a floating lazy Susan" as we pulled into the car park outside the museum.
The Glentunnel Museum (former clubhouse of the Odd Fellow Society) is open on Sundays ($3 entry fee) and by appointment otherwise. At short notice, curator Pam Reynolds kindly met us at the front door and gave us an informative history of the area. Then she took us next door to check out the quaint octagonal brick (locally manufactured) Glentunnel Library and Post Office (1888) where we met Joan (todays librarian and postmistress) and some locals who were collecting their mail.
We thanked Pam and waved goodbye. I whisked out the app and we started the tour - reading snippets of the descriptions as we went. Opposite the museum is the St. Andrews of the Glen Church, closed after 2010 earthquakes. We walked around the outside to check out the stained glass window, gifted by the Deans family in 1951 (descendents of the early Deans pioneers). At the end of Philips Street, past the Whitecliffs Rail Crossing and the site of the Homebush Brick, Tile, Terra-cotta and Pottery Works, we checked out the Glenntunnel Stables and Magazine.
We retraced our steps to Railway Terrace and the cute "Bug Row" cottages - once miner's homes - then we meandered past the sites of the Glentunnel Railway Station and the Glentunnel Hotel and Boarding House. The only brick house in town is still standing on the corner of Victoria and Union Streets.
On Albert Terrace but nearing Homebush Road, is the site of the old Blacksmiths Shop and opposite, Saint Luke's Anglican Church which these days houses the open Bretheren. We tried the front door but it was locked and the windows were all covered so that you couldn't peak inside. We speculated as to what might go on in there.
By this stage it was well after 11am, our tummies were rumbling and we were well in need of lubrication, so we crossed Homebush Road and proceeded to the Hororata Golf Course (18 holes) for coffees and hot chocolates at Cafe of the Green. I can vouch that the egg bene stack is yum and the kumara soup (personally delivered by the chef) warms you up from the inside.
Afterwards, we followed the forest path all the way to the Malvern Cemetry. The path runs parallel to Homebush Road and, as we dropped down and crossed the culvert on a precarious footbridge, one of our crew announced: "That's it. I'm stepping down from all responsibilities. I'm done". Somehow it seemed rather fitting that we were soon walking amongst graves. Of particular interest were the Deans and the unmarked paupers graves. Also, that of poor young James Wilson who dropped dead after a visit to the doctors on 9th June 1900.
It was time to return to the car. On the way back we stopped to talk to a ram which seemed way too interested in us. He had the cutest nose you ever did see. We bypassed (with a cursory glance) the community center, the store and the school (probably where Miss J Barlow strapped her students). Then it was Spotify all the way home. Apparently my music does not match my personality - which I'm taking as a compliment.
Recommended Reading: Speight, R. The Geology of the Malvern Hills (1928)