How many nanoseconds are in a second?

A nanosecond (ns) is an SI unit of time equal to one thousand-millionth of a second (or one billionth of a second), that is, / of a second, or 10 seconds.

Nanosecond

The term combines the prefix "nano-" with the basic unit for one-sixtieth of a minute.

A nanosecond is equal to 1000 picoseconds or  microsecond. Time units ranging between 10 and 10 seconds are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of nanoseconds.

Time units of this granularity are commonly encountered in telecommunications, pulsed lasers, and related aspects of electronics.

Nanosecond


Who designed Blenheim Palace?

Blenheim Palace close to Woodstock was built by the great architect John Vanbrugh for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, after he had won the battle of Blenheim. The gardens, which can be visited, were designed by the landscape gardener "Capability Brown", who planted the trees in the battle formation of the victorious army. In the palace, which can also be visited by the public, Sir Winston Churchill was born in 1874.

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire (abbreviated Oxon, from "Oxonium", the Latin name for Oxford) is a county in South East England. The ceremonial county borders Warwickshire to the north-west, Northamptonshire to the north-east, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, Wiltshire to the south-west and Gloucestershire to the west.

The county has major education and tourist industries and is noted for the concentration of performance motorsport companies and facilities. Oxford University Press is the largest firm among a concentration of print and publishing firms; the University of Oxford is also linked to the concentration of local biotechnology companies.

As well as the city of Oxford, other centres of population are Banbury, Bicester, Kidlington and Chipping Norton to the north of Oxford; Carterton and Witney to the west; Thame and Chinnor to the east; and Abingdon-on-Thames, Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford and Henley-on-Thames to the south. The areas south of the Thames, the Vale of White Horse and parts of South Oxfordshire, are in the historic county of Berkshire, as is the highest point, the White Horse Hill.

Oxfordshire's county flower is the snake's-head fritillary.

Oxfordshire was recorded as a county in the early years of the 10th century and lies between the River Thames to the south, the Cotswolds to the west, the Chilterns to the east and the Midlands to the north, with spurs running south to Henley-on-Thames and north to Banbury.

Although it had some significance as an area of valuable agricultural land in the centre of the country, it was largely ignored by the Romans, and did not grow in importance until the formation of a settlement at Oxford in the 8th century. Alfred the Great was born across the Thames in Wantage, Vale of White Horse. The University of Oxford was founded in 1096, though its collegiate structure did not develop until later on. The university in the county town of Oxford (whose name came from Anglo-Saxon "Oxenaford" = "ford for oxen") grew in importance during the Middle Ages and early modern period. The area was part of the Cotswolds wool trade from the 13th century, generating much wealth, particularly in the western portions of the county in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Morris Motors was founded in Oxford in 1912, bringing heavy industry to an otherwise agricultural county. The importance of agriculture as an employer has declined rapidly in the 20th century though; currently under one percent of the county's population are involved due to high mechanisation. Nonetheless, Oxfordshire remains a very agricultural county by land use, with a lower population than neighbouring Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, which are both smaller.

Throughout most of its history the county was divided into fourteen hundreds, namely Bampton, Banbury, Binfield, Bloxham, Bullingdon, Chadlington, Dorchester, Ewelme, Langtree, Lewknor, Pyrton, Ploughley, Thame and Wootton.

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the main army unit in the area, was based at Cowley Barracks on Bullingdon Green, Cowley.

The Vale of White Horse district and parts of the South Oxfordshire administrative district south of the River Thames were historically part of Berkshire, but in 1974 Abingdon, Didcot, Faringdon, Wallingford and Wantage were added to the administrative county of Oxfordshire under the Local Government Act 1972. Conversely, the Caversham area of Reading, now administratively in Berkshire, was historically part of Oxfordshire as was the parish of Stokenchurch, now administratively in Buckinghamshire.

Oxfordshire includes parts of three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In the north-west lie the Cotswolds, to the south and south-east are the open chalk hills of the North Wessex Downs and wooded hills of the Chilterns. The north of the county contains the ironstone of the Cherwell uplands. Long-distance walks within the county include the Ridgeway National Trail, Macmillan Way, Oxfordshire Way and the D’Arcy Dalton Way.The central part of Oxfordshire contains the River Thames with its flat floodplains; the river forms the historic county boundary with Berkshire. The Thames Path National Trail parallels the river as it crosses Oxfordshire, continuing towards London. There are many smaller rivers that feed into the Thames such as the Thame, Windrush, Evenlode and Cherwell. Some of these rivers have trails running along their valleys. The Oxford Canal follows the Cherwell from Banbury to Kidlington.

Oxfordshire contains a green belt area that fully envelops the city of Oxford, and extends for some miles to afford a protection to surrounding towns and villages from inappropriate development and urban growth. Its border in the east extends to the Buckinghamshire county boundary, while part of its southern border is shared with the North Wessex Downs AONB. It was first drawn up in the 1950s, and all the county's districts contain some portion of the belt.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Oxfordshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British pounds sterling.

The Oxfordshire County Council, since 2013 under no overall control, is responsible for the most strategic local government functions, including schools, county roads, and social services. The county is divided into five local government districts: Oxford, Cherwell, Vale of White Horse (after the Uffington White Horse), West Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire, which deal with such matters as town and country planning, waste collection, and housing.

In the 2016 European Union referendum, Oxfordshire was the only English county as a whole to vote to remain in the European Union by a significant margin, at 57.06% (70.27% in the City of Oxford), despite Cherwell (barely) voting to leave at 50.31%.

Oxfordshire has a completely comprehensive education system with 23 independent schools and 35 state secondary schools. Only eight schools do not have a sixth form; these are mostly in South Oxfordshire and Cherwell districts.

The county has two universities: the ancient University of Oxford and the modern Oxford Brookes University, which are both located in Oxford. In addition, Wroxton College, located in Banbury, is affiliated with Fairleigh Dickinson University of New Jersey.

The "dreaming spires" of the buildings of the University of Oxford are among the reasons for Oxford being the sixth most visited city in the United Kingdom for international visitors. Among many notable University buildings are the Sheldonian Theatre, built 1664–68 to the design of Sir Christopher Wren, and the Radcliffe Camera, built 1737–49 to the design of James Gibbs.

Chastleton House, on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire borders, is a great country mansion built on property bought from Robert Catesby, who was one of the men involved in the Gunpowder Plot with Guy Fawkes. Stonor Park, another country mansion, has belonged to the recusant Stonor family for centuries.

Mapledurham House is an Elizabethan stately home in the far south-east of the county, close to Reading.

The architect selected for the ambitious project was a controversial one. The Duchess was known to favour Sir Christopher Wren, famous for St Paul's Cathedral and many other national buildings. The Duke however, following a chance meeting at a playhouse, is said to have commissioned Sir John Vanbrugh there and then. Vanbrugh, a popular dramatist, was an untrained architect, who usually worked in conjunction with the trained and practical Nicholas Hawksmoor. The duo had recently completed the first stages of the Baroque Castle Howard. This huge Yorkshire mansion was one of England's first houses in the flamboyant European Baroque style. The success of Castle Howard led Marlborough to commission something similar at Woodstock.
Blenheim, however, was not to provide Vanbrugh with the architectural plaudits he imagined it would. The fight over funding led to accusations of extravagance and impracticality of design, many of these charges levelled by the Whig factions in power. He found no defender in the Duchess of Marlborough. Having been foiled in her wish to employ Wren, she levelled criticism at Vanbrugh on every level, from design to taste. In part their problems arose from what was demanded of the architect. The nation (which was then assumed, by both architect and owners, to be paying the bills) wanted a monument, but the Duchess wanted not only a fitting tribute to her husband but also a comfortable home, two requirements that were not compatible in 18th-century architecture. Finally, in the early days of the building the Duke was frequently away on his military campaigns, and it was left to the Duchess to negotiate with Vanbrugh. More aware than her husband of the precarious state of the financial aid they were receiving, she criticised Vanbrugh's grandiose ideas for their extravagance.

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a monumental country house in Blenheim, Oxfordshire, England. It is the principal residence of the Dukes of Marlborough, and the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between 1705 and 1722, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

The palace is named for the 1704 Battle of Blenheim, and thus ultimately after Blindheim (also known as Blenheim) in Bavaria. It was originally intended to be a reward to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough for his military triumphs against the French and Bavarians in the War of the Spanish Succession, culminating in the Battle of Blenheim. The land was given as a gift, and construction began in 1705, with some financial support from Queen Anne. The project soon became the subject of political infighting, with the Crown cancelling further financial support in 1712, Marlborough's three-year voluntary exile to the Continent, the fall from influence of his duchy and lasting damage to the reputation of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh.

Designed in the rare, and short-lived, English Baroque style, architectural appreciation of the palace is as divided today as it was in the 1720s. It is unique in its combined use as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. The palace is notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill.

Following the palace's completion, it became the home of the Churchill (later Spencer-Churchill) family for the next 300 years, and various members of the family have wrought changes to the interiors, park and gardens. At the end of the 19th century, the palace was saved from ruin by funds gained from the 9th Duke of Marlborough's marriage to American railroad heiress, Consuelo Vanderbilt.

John Churchill was born in Devon. Although his family had aristocratic relations, it belonged to the minor gentry rather than the upper echelons of 17th-century society. In 1678, Churchill married Sarah Jennings, and in April that year, he was sent by Charles II to The Hague to negotiate a convention on the deployment of the English army in Flanders. The mission ultimately proved abortive. In May, Churchill was appointed to the temporary rank of Brigadier-General of Foot, but the possibility of a continental campaign was eliminated with the Treaty of Nijmegen. When Churchill returned to England, the Popish Plot resulted in a temporary three-year banishment for James Stuart, Duke of York. The Duke obliged Churchill to attend him, first to The Hague, then in Brussels. For his services during the crisis, Churchill was made Lord Churchill of Eyemouth in the peerage of Scotland in 1682, and the following year appointed colonel of the King's Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons.

On the death of Charles II in 1685, his brother, the Duke of York, became King James II. James had been Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company (today North America's oldest company, established by royal charter in 1670), and with his succession to the throne, Churchill was appointed the company's third ever governor. He had also been affirmed Gentleman of the Bedchamber in April, and admitted to the English peerage as Baron Churchill of Sandridge in the county of Hertfordshire in May. Following the Monmouth Rebellion, Churchill was promoted to Major General and awarded the lucrative colonelcy of the Third Troop of Life Guards. When William, Prince of Orange, invaded England in November 1688, Churchill, accompanied by some 400 officers and men, rode to join him in Axminster. When the King saw he could not even keep Churchill—for so long his loyal and intimate servant—he fled to France. As part of William III's coronation honours Churchill was created Earl of Marlborough, sworn to the Privy Council, and made a Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber.

During the War of the Spanish Succession Churchill gained a reputation as a capable military commander, and in 1702 he was elevated to the dukedom of Marlborough. During the war he won a series of victories, including the Battle of Blenheim (1704), the Battle of Ramillies (1706), the Battle of Oudenarde (1708), and the Battle of Malplaquet (1709). For his victory at Blenheim, the Crown bestowed upon Marlborough the tenancy of the royal manor of Hensington (situated on the site of Woodstock) to site the new palace, and Parliament voted a substantial sum of money towards its creation. The rent or "petit serjeanty" due to the Crown for the land was set at the peppercorn rent or quit-rent of one copy of the French royal flag to be tendered to the Monarch annually on the anniversary of the Battle of Blenheim. This flag is displayed by the Monarch on a 17th-century French writing table in Windsor Castle.

Marlborough's wife was by all accounts a cantankerous woman, though capable of great charm. She had befriended the young Princess Anne and later, when the princess became Queen, the Duchess of Marlborough, as Her Majesty's Mistress of the Robes, exerted great influence over the Queen on both personal and political levels. The relationship between Queen and Duchess later became strained and fraught, and following their final quarrel in 1711, the money for the construction of Blenheim ceased. For political reasons the Marlboroughs went into exile on the Continent until they returned the day after the Queen's death on 1 August 1714.

The estate given by the nation to Marlborough for the new palace was the manor of Woodstock, sometimes called the Palace of Woodstock, which had been a royal demesne, in reality little more than a deer park. Legend has obscured the manor's origins. King Henry I enclosed the park to contain the deer. Henry II housed his mistress Rosamund Clifford (sometimes known as "Fair Rosamund") there in a "bower and labyrinth"; a spring in which she is said to have bathed remains, named after her. It seems the unostentatious hunting lodge was rebuilt many times, and had an uneventful history until Elizabeth I, before her succession, was imprisoned there by her half-sister Mary I between 1554 and 1555. Elizabeth had been implicated in the Wyatt plot, but her imprisonment at Woodstock was short, and the manor remained in obscurity until bombarded and ruined by Oliver Cromwell's troops during the Civil War. When the park was being re-landscaped as a setting for the palace the 1st Duchess wanted the historic ruins demolished, while Vanbrugh, an early conservationist, wanted them restored and made into a landscape feature. The Duchess, as so often in her disputes with her architect, won the day and the remains of the manor were swept away.

Following their final altercation, Vanbrugh was banned from the site. In 1719, whilst the Duchess was away, Vanbrugh viewed the palace in secret. However, when his wife visited the completed Blenheim as a member of the viewing public in 1725, the Duchess refused his wife admission even to enter the park.

Vanbrugh's severe massed Baroque used at Blenheim never truly caught the public imagination, and was quickly superseded by the revival of the Palladian style. Vanbrugh's reputation was irreparably damaged, and he received no further truly great public commissions. For his final design, Seaton Delaval Hall, which was hailed as his masterpiece, he used a refined version of the Baroque employed at Blenheim. He died shortly before its completion.

The precise responsibility for the funding of the new palace has always been a debatable subject, unresolved to this day. The palace as a reward was mooted within months of the Battle of Blenheim, at a time when Marlborough was still to gain many further victories on behalf of the country. That a grateful nation led by Queen Anne wished and intended to give their national hero a suitable home is beyond doubt, but the exact size and nature of that house is questionable. A warrant dated 1705, signed by the parliamentary treasurer the Earl of Godolphin, appointed Vanbrugh as architect and outlined his remit. Unfortunately for the Churchills, nowhere did this warrant mention Queen or Crown.

The Duke of Marlborough contributed £60,000 to the initial cost when work commenced in 1705, which, supplemented by Parliament, should have built a monumental house. Parliament voted funds for the building of Blenheim, but no exact sum was mentioned nor provision for inflation or over-budget expenses. Almost from the outset, funds were spasmodic. Queen Anne paid some of them, but with growing reluctance and lapses, following her frequent altercations with the Duchess. After their final argument in 1712, all state money ceased and work came to a halt. £220,000 had already been spent and £45,000 was owing to workmen. The Marlboroughs were forced into exile on the continent, and did not return until after the Queen's death in 1714.

On their return the Duke and Duchess came back into favour at court. The 64-year-old Duke now decided to complete the project at his own expense. In 1716 work resumed, but the project relied completely upon the limited means of the Duke himself. Harmony on the building site was short-lived, as in 1717 the Duke suffered a severe stroke, and the thrifty Duchess took control. The Duchess blamed Vanbrugh entirely for the growing costs and extravagance of the palace, the design of which she had never liked. Following a meeting with the Duchess, Vanbrugh left the building site in a rage, insisting that the new masons, carpenters and craftsmen, brought in by the Duchess, were inferior to those he had employed. The master craftsmen he had patronised, however, such as Grinling Gibbons, refused to work for the lower rates paid by the Marlboroughs. The craftsmen brought in by the Duchess, under the guidance of furniture designer James Moore, and Vanbrugh's assistant architect Hawksmoor, completed the work in perfect imitation of the greater masters.
Following the Duke's death in 1722, completion of the palace and its park became the Duchess's driving ambition. Vanbrugh's assistant Hawksmoor was recalled and in 1723 designed the "Arch of Triumph", based on the Arch of Titus, at the entrance to the park from Woodstock. Hawksmoor also completed the interior design of the library, the ceilings of many of the state rooms and other details in numerous other minor rooms, and various outbuildings. Cutting rates of pay to workmen, and using lower-quality materials in unobtrusive places, the widowed Duchess completed the great house as a tribute to her late husband. The final date of completion is not known, but as late as 1735 the Duchess was haggling with Rysbrack over the cost of Queen Anne's statue placed in the library. In 1732 the Duchess wrote "The Chappel is finish'd and more than half the Tomb there ready to set up".

Vanbrugh planned Blenheim in perspective; that is, to be best viewed from a distance. As the site covers some seven acres (28,000 m²) this is also a necessity.

The plan of the palace's principal block (or corps de logis) is a rectangle ("see plan") pierced by two courtyards; these serve as little more than light wells. Contained behind the southern facade are the principal state apartments; on the east side are the suites of private apartments of the Duke and Duchess, and on the west along the entire length of the "piano nobile" is given a long gallery originally conceived as a picture gallery, but is now the library. The corps de logis is flanked by two further service blocks around square courtyards ("not shown in the plan"). The east court contains the kitchens, laundry, and other domestic offices, the west court adjacent to the chapel the stables and indoor riding school. The three blocks together form the "Great Court" designed to overpower the visitor arriving at the palace. Pilasters and pillars abound, while from the roofs, themselves resembling those of a small town, great statues in the Renaissance manner of St Peter's in Rome gaze down on the visitor below, who is rendered inconsequential. Other assorted statuary in the guise of martial trophies decorate the roofs, most notably Britannia standing atop the entrance pediment in front of two reclining chained French captives sculpted in the style of Michelangelo, and the English lion devouring the French cock, on the lower roofs. Many of these are by such masters as Grinling Gibbons.

In the design of great 18th-century houses comfort and convenience were subservient to magnificence, and this is certainly the case at Blenheim. This magnificence over creature comfort is heightened as the architect's brief was to create not only a home but also a national monument to reflect the power and civilisation of the nation. To create this monumental effect, Vanbrugh chose to design in a severe Baroque style, using great masses of stone to imitate strength and create shadow as decoration.

The solid and huge entrance portico on the north front resembles more the entrance to a pantheon than a family home. Vanbrugh also liked to employ what he called his "castle air", which he achieved by placing a low tower at each corner of the central block and crowning the towers with vast belvederes of massed stone, decorated with curious finials (disguising the chimneys). Coincidentally these towers, which hint at the pylons of an Egyptian temple, further add to the heroic pantheonesque atmosphere of the building.

There are two approaches to the palace's grand entrance, one from the long straight drive through wrought iron gates directly into the Great Court; the other, equally if not more impressive, betrays Vanbrugh's true vision: the palace as a bastion or citadel, the true monument and home to a great warrior. Piercing the windowless, city-like curtain wall of the east court is the great East Gate, a monumental triumphal arch, more Egyptian in design than Roman. An optical illusion was created by tapering its walls to create an impression of even greater height. Confounding those who accuse Vanbrugh of impracticality, this gate is also the palace's water tower. Through the arch of the gate one views across the courtyard a second equally massive gate, that beneath the clock tower, through which one glimpses the Great Court.
This view of the Duke as an omnipotent being is also reflected in the interior design of the palace, and indeed its axis to certain features in the park. It was planned that when the Duke dined in state in his place of honour in the great saloon, he would be the climax of a great procession of architectural mass aggrandising him rather like a proscenium. The line of celebration and honour of his victorious life began with the great column of victory surmounted by his statue and detailing his triumphs, and the next point on the great axis, planted with trees in the position of troops, was the epic Roman style bridge. The approach continues through the great portico into the hall, its ceiling painted by James Thornhill with the Duke's apotheosis, then on under a great triumphal arch, through the huge marble door-case with the Duke's marble effigy above it (bearing the ducal plaudit "Nor could Augustus better calm mankind"), and into the painted saloon, the most highly decorated room in the palace, where the Duke was to have sat enthroned.

The Duke was to have sat with his back to the great 30-tonne marble bust of his vanquished foe Louis XIV, positioned high above the south portico. Here the defeated King was humiliatingly forced to look down on the great parterre and spoils of his conqueror (rather in the same way as severed heads were displayed generations earlier). The Duke did not live long enough to see this majestic tribute realised, and sit enthroned in this architectural vision. The Duke and Duchess moved into their apartments on the eastern side of the palace, but the entirety was not completed until after the Duke's death.

The palace has been Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England since August 1957.

The palace chapel, as a consequence of the Duke's death, now obtained even greater importance. The design was altered by the Marlboroughs' friend the Earl of Godolphin, who placed the high altar in defiance of religious convention against the west wall, thus allowing the dominating feature to be the Duke's gargantuan tomb and sarcophagus. Commissioned by the Duchess in 1730, it was designed by William Kent, and statues of the Duke and Duchess depicted as Caesar and Caesarina adorn the great sarcophagus. In bas relief at the base of the tomb, the Duchess ordered to be depicted the surrender of Marshal Tallard. However, the theme throughout the palace of honouring the Duke did not reach its apotheosis until the dowager duchess's death in 1744. Then, the Duke's coffin was returned to Blenheim from its temporary resting place, Westminster Abbey, and husband and wife were interred together and the tomb erected and completed. Now Blenheim had indeed become a pantheon and mausoleum. Successive Dukes and their wives are also interred in the vault beneath the chapel. Other members of family are interred in St. Martin's parish churchyard at Bladon, a short distance from the palace.

The internal layout of the rooms of the central block at Blenheim was defined by the court etiquette of the day. State apartments were designed as an axis of rooms of increasing importance and public use, leading to the chief room. The larger houses, like Blenheim, had two sets of state apartments each mirroring each other. The grandest and most public and important was the central saloon "("B" in the plan") which served as the communal state dining room. To either side of the saloon are suites of state apartments, decreasing in importance but increasing in privacy: the first room "("C")" would have been an audience chamber for receiving important guests, the next room "("L")" a private withdrawing room, the next room "("M")" would have been the bedroom of the occupier of the suite, thus the most private. One of the small rooms between the bedroom and the internal courtyard was intended as a dressing room. This arrangement is reflected on the other side of the saloon. The state apartments were intended for use by only the most important guests such as a visiting sovereign. On the left (east) side of the plan on either side of the bow room "(marked "O")" can be seen a smaller but nearly identical layout of rooms, which were the suites of the Duke and Duchess themselves. Thus, the bow room corresponds exactly to the saloon in terms of its importance to the two smaller suites.

Blenheim Palace was the birthplace of the 1st Duke's famous descendant, Winston Churchill, whose life and times are commemorated by a permanent exhibition in the suite of rooms in which he was born "(marked "K" on the plan)". Blenheim Palace was designed with all its principal and secondary rooms on the "piano nobile", thus there is no great staircase of state: anyone worthy of such state would have no cause to leave the "piano nobile". Insofar as Blenheim does have a grand staircase, it is the series of steps in the Great Court which lead to the North Portico. There are staircases of various sizes and grandeur in the central block, but none are designed on the same scale of magnificence as the palace. James Thornhill painted the ceiling of the hall in 1716. It depicts Marlborough kneeling to Britannia and proffering a map of the Battle of Blenheim. The hall is high, and remarkable chiefly for its size and for its stone carvings by Gibbons, yet in spite of its immense size it is merely a vast anteroom to the saloon.

The saloon was also to have been painted by Thornhill, but the Duchess suspected him of overcharging, so the commission was given to Louis Laguerre. This room is an example of three-dimensional painting, or "trompe l'œil", "trick-the-eye", a fashionable painting technique at the time. The Peace Treaty of Utrecht was about to be signed, so all the elements in the painting represent the coming of peace. The domed ceiling is an allegorical representation of Peace: John Churchill is in the chariot, he holds a zigzag thunderbolt of war, and the woman who holds back his arm represents Peace. The walls depict all the nations of the world who have come together peacefully. Laguerre also included a self-portrait placing himself next to Dean Jones, chaplain to the 1st Duke, another enemy of the Duchess, although she tolerated him in the household because he could play a good hand at cards. To the right of the doorway leading into the first stateroom, Laguerre included the French spies, said to have big ears and eyes because they may still be spying. Of the four marble door-cases in the room displaying the Duke's crest as a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, only one is by Gibbons, the other three were copied indistinguishably by the Duchess's cheaper craftsmen.

The third remarkable room is the long library designed by Christopher Wren, "(H)", long, which was intended as a picture gallery. The ceiling has saucer domes, which were to have been painted by Thornhill, had the Duchess not upset him. The palace, and in particular this room, was furnished with the many valuable artefacts the Duke had been given, or sequestered as the spoils of war, including a fine art collection. Here in the library, rewriting history in her own indomitable style, the Duchess set up a larger than life statue of Queen Anne, its base recording their friendship.

From the northern end of the library—in which is housed the largest pipe organ in private ownership in Europe, built by England's great organ builder Henry Willis & Sons—access is obtained to the raised colonnade which leads to the chapel "(H)". The chapel is perfectly balanced on the eastern side of the palace by the vaulted kitchen. This symmetrical balancing and equal weight given to both spiritual and physical nourishment would no doubt have appealed to Vanbrugh's renowned sense of humour, if not the Duchess's. The distance of the kitchen from even the private dining room "("O" on the plan)" was obviously of no consideration, hot food being of less importance than to avoid having to inhale the odour of cooking and proximity of servants.

The Long Library organ was built in 1891 by the famous London firm of Henry Willis & Sons at a cost of £3,669. It replaced a previous organ built in 1888 by Isaac Abbott of Leeds, which was removed to St Swithun's church, Hither Green. Originally erected in the central bay, with its back to the water terraces, the Norwich firm of Norman & Beard moved it to the northwestern end of the library in 1902 and made a few tonal additions and, the following year, cleaned it. No further changes were made until 1930, when the Willis firm lowered the pitch to modern concert pitch: a Welte automatic player was added in 1931, with 70 rolls cut by Marcel Dupré, Joseph Bonnet, Alfred Hollins, Edwin Lemare and Harry Goss-Custard also being supplied. This remained in use for some time: the Duke of the time is said to have frequently sat at the organ bench and pretended to play the organ to his guests and they would applaud at the end. This practice is said to have been halted abruptly when the player started before the Duke had reached the organ. This famous instrument is regularly maintained and is played by visiting organists throughout the year, but its condition is declining: a fundraising campaign has been launched for its complete restoration.

The organ in the chapel was built circa 1853 by Robert Postill of York: it is notable as a rare unaltered example of this fine builder's work, speaking boldly and clearly into a generous acoustic.

Blenheim sits in the centre of a large undulating park, a classic example of the English landscape garden movement and style. When Vanbrugh first cast his eyes over it in 1704 he immediately conceived a typically grandiose plan: through the park trickled the small River Glyme, and Vanbrugh envisaged this marshy brook traversed by the "finest bridge in Europe". Thus, ignoring the second opinion offered by Sir Christopher Wren, the marsh was channelled into three small canal-like streams and across it rose a bridge of huge proportions, so huge it was reported to contain some 30-odd rooms. While the bridge was indeed an amazing wonder, in this setting it appeared incongruous, causing Alexander Pope to comment: "the minnows, as under this vast arch they pass, murmur, 'how like whales we look, thanks to your Grace.'"

Horace Walpole saw it in 1760, shortly before Capability Brown's improvements: "the bridge, like the beggars at the old duchess's gate, begs for a drop of water and is refused." Another of Vanbrugh's schemes was the great parterre, nearly half a mile long and as wide as the south front. Also in the park, completed after the 1st Duke's death, is the "Column of Victory". It is high and terminates a great avenue of elms leading to the palace, which were planted in the positions of Marlborough's troops at the Battle of Blenheim. Vanbrugh had wanted an obelisk to mark the site of the former royal manor, and the trysts of Henry II which had taken place there, causing the 1st Duchess to remark, "If there were obelisks to bee made of all what our Kings have done of that sort, the countrey would bee stuffed with very odd things" ("sic"). The obelisk was never realised.

Following the 1st Duke's death the Duchess concentrated most of her considerable energies on the completion of the palace itself, and the park remained relatively unchanged until the arrival of Capability Brown in 1764. The 4th Duke employed Brown who immediately began an English landscape garden scheme to naturalise and enhance the landscape, with tree planting, and man-made undulations. However, the feature with which he is forever associated is the lake, a huge stretch of water created by damming the River Glyme and ornamented by a series of cascades where the river flows in and out. The lake was narrowed at the point of Vanbrugh's grand bridge, but the three small canal-like streams trickling underneath it were completely absorbed by one river-like stretch. Brown's great achievement at this point was to actually flood and submerge beneath the water level the lower stories and rooms of the bridge itself, thus reducing its incongruous height and achieving what is regarded by many as the epitome of an English landscape. Brown also grassed over the great parterre and the Great Court. The latter was re-paved by Duchene in the early 20th century. The 5th Duke was responsible for several other garden follies and novelties.

Sir William Chambers, assisted by John Yenn, was responsible for the small summerhouse known as "The Temple of Diana" down by the lake, where in 1908 Winston Churchill proposed to his future wife.

The extensive landscaped park, woodlands and formal gardens of Blenheim are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

On the death of the 1st Duke in 1722, as both his sons were dead, he was succeeded by his daughter Henrietta. This was an unusual succession and required a special Act of Parliament, as only sons can usually succeed to a dukedom. When Henrietta died, the title passed to Marlborough's grandson Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, whose mother was Marlborough's second daughter Anne.

The 1st Duke as a soldier was not a rich man, and what fortune he possessed was mostly used for finishing the palace. In comparison with other British ducal families the Marlboroughs were not very wealthy. Yet they existed quite comfortably until the time of the 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766–1840), a spendthrift who considerably depleted the family's remaining fortune. He was eventually forced to sell other family estates, but Blenheim was safe from him as it was entailed. This did not prevent him selling the Marlboroughs' Boccaccio for a mere £875, and his own library in over 4000 lots. On his death in 1840, his profligacy left the estate and family with financial problems.

By the 1870s the Marlboroughs were in severe financial trouble, and in 1875 the 7th Duke sold the "Marriage of Cupid and Psyche", together with the famed Marlborough gems, at auction for £10,000. However this was not enough to save the family. In 1880 the 7th Duke was forced to petition Parliament to break the protective entail on the Palace and its contents. This was achieved under the Blenheim Settled Estates Act of 1880, and the door was now open for wholesale dispersal of Blenheim and its contents. The first victim was the great Sunderland Library which was sold in 1882, including such volumes as "The Epistles of Horace", printed at Caen in 1480, and the works of Josephus, printed at Verona in 1648. The 18,000 volumes raised almost £60,000. The sales continued to denude the palace: Raphael's "Ansidei Madonna" was sold for £70,000; Van Dyck's Equestrian Portrait of Charles I realised £17,500; and finally the "piece de resistance" of the collection, Peter Paul Rubens' "Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment, and Their Son Peter Paul, and Their Son Frans (1633–1678)", which had been given by the city of Brussels to the 1st Duke in 1704, was also sold, and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

These sums of money, vast by the standards of the day, failed to cover the debts, and the maintenance of the great palace remained beyond the Marlboroughs' resources. These had always been small in relation to their ducal rank and the size of their house. The British agricultural depression which started in the 1870s added to the family's problems. When the 9th Duke inherited in 1892, the land was generating dwindling income.

Charles, 9th Duke of Marlborough (1871–1934) can be credited with saving both the palace and the family. Inheriting the near-bankrupt dukedom in 1892, he was forced to find a quick and drastic solution to the problems. Prevented by the strict social dictates of late 19th-century society from earning money, he was left with one solution: he had to marry money. In November 1896 he coldly and openly without love married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. The marriage was celebrated following lengthy negotiations with her divorced parents: her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, was desperate to see her daughter a duchess, and the bride's father, William Vanderbilt, paid for the privilege. The final price was $2,500,000 ($ million today) in 50,000 shares of the capital stock of the Beech Creek Railway Company with a minimum 4% dividend guaranteed by the New York Central Railroad Company. The couple were given a further annual income each of $100,000 for life. The bride later claimed she had been locked in her room until she agreed to the marriage. The contract was actually signed in the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, immediately after the wedding vows had been made. In the carriage leaving the church, Marlborough told Consuelo he loved another woman, and would never return to America, as he "despised anything that was not British".

The replenishing of Blenheim began on the honeymoon itself, with the replacement of the Marlborough gems. Tapestries, paintings and furniture were bought in Europe to fill the depleted palace. On their return the Duke began an exhaustive restoration and redecoration of the palace. The state rooms to the west of the saloon were redecorated with gilt boiseries in imitation of Versailles. Vanbrugh's subtle rivalry to Louis XIV's great palace was now completely undermined, as the interiors became mere pastiches of those of the greater palace. While this redecoration may not have been without fault (and the Duke later regretted it), other improvements were better received. Another problem caused by the redecoration was that the state and principal bedrooms were now moved upstairs, thus rendering the state rooms an enfilade of rather similar and meaningless drawing rooms. On the west terrace the French landscape architect Achille Duchêne was employed to create a water garden. On a second terrace below this were placed two great fountains in the style of Bernini, scaled models of those in the Piazza Navona which had been presented to the 1st Duke.

Blenheim was once again a place of wonder and prestige. However, Consuelo was far from happy; she records many of her problems in her cynical and often less than candid biography "The Glitter and the Gold". In 1906 she shocked society and left her husband, finally divorcing in 1921. She subsequently married a Frenchman, Jacques Balsan. She died in 1964, having lived to see her son become Duke of Marlborough, and frequently returning to Blenheim, the house she had hated and yet saved, albeit as the unwilling sacrifice.

After his divorce the Duke married again, to a former friend of Consuelo, Gladys Deacon, another American. This eccentric lady was of an artistic disposition, and a painting of her eyes still remains on the ceiling of the great north portico ("see secondary lead image"). A lower terrace was decorated with sphinxes modelled on Gladys and executed by W. Ward Willis in 1930. Before her marriage while staying with the Marlboroughs she had caused a diplomatic incident by encouraging the young Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany to form an attachment. The prince had given her an heirloom ring, which the combined diplomatic services of two empires were charged to recover. After her marriage Gladys was in the habit of dining with the Duke with a revolver by the side of her plate. Tiring of her the Duke was temporarily forced to close Blenheim, and turn off the utilities to drive her out. They subsequently separated but did not divorce. The Duke died in 1934 and his widow in 1977.

The 9th Duke was succeeded by his and Consuelo Vanderbilt's eldest son: John, 10th Duke of Marlborough (1897–1972), who after eleven years as a widower, remarried at the age of 74, to (Frances) Laura Charteris, formerly the wife of the 2nd Viscount Long and the 3rd Earl of Dudley, and granddaughter of the 11th Earl of Wemyss. The marriage was short-lived, however; the Duke died just six weeks later, on 11 March 1972. The bereaved Duchess complained of "the gloom and inhospitality of Blenheim" after his death, and soon moved out. In her autobiography, "Laughter from a Cloud" (1980), she referred to Blenheim Palace as "The Dump". She died in London in 1990.

During the war the 10th Duke welcomed the boys from Malvern College as evacuees, and in September 1940 allowed MI5 to use the palace as a base.

The palace remains the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, the present incumbent of the title being Charles James (Jamie) Spencer-Churchill, 12th Duke of Marlborough. Charles James succeeded the Dukedom upon his father's death on 16 October 2014.

, the Marlboroughs still have to tender a copy of the French royal flag to the Monarch on the anniversary of the Battle of Blenheim as rent for the land that Blenheim Palace stands on.

The palace, park, and gardens are open to the public on payment of an entry fee (maximum £24.90 ). Separation of tourist entertainment attractions (the "Pleasure Gardens") from the palace ensures that the atmosphere of a large country house is retained. The palace is linked to the gardens by a miniature railway, the Blenheim Park Railway.

Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, the brother of the current Duke, wished to feature a contemporary art programme within the historic setting of the palace where he spent his childhood. He founded Blenheim Art Foundation (BAF), a non-profit organisation, to present large-scale contemporary art exhibitions. BAF launched on 1 October 2014 with the UK's largest ever exhibition by Ai Weiwei. The foundation was conceived to give a vast number of people access to innovative contemporary artists working in the context of this historic palace.

The public have free access to about five miles (8 km) of public rights of way through the Great Park area of the grounds, which are accessible from Old Woodstock and from the Oxfordshire Way, and which are close to the Column of Victory.


Where is Lyttelton?

Lyttelton railway station is the northern terminus of the Main South Line, a main trunk railway line from Lyttelton to Invercargill in the South Island of New Zealand. There have been three stations built at Lyttelton, with the most recent of these still being used for railway purposes.

Lyttelton railway station

Both freight and passenger services have featured at Lyttelton since it opened in 1867. With the cessation of suburban passenger trains to Lyttelton in the 1970s, freight became the mainstay of the railways’ business at Lyttelton and today passenger traffic from Lyttelton plays only a minor role. Tranz Scenic have run a limited tourist service from the station in recent years during the summer season though patronage of these trains is limited to cruise ship passengers. Proposals have been made to reinstate a commuter rail service from Lyttelton, however this is not considered to be a realistic possibility for the foreseeable future. Operations at Lyttelton have included all three forms of motive power, with steam being dominant until the late 1960s when diesel began to take over, and electric power from 1929 to 1970. All trains at Lyttelton are now diesel-hauled.

Public transport connections at Lyttelton include Metro bus routes 28 and 35 (for which the nearest bus stop is a short distance down Norwich Quay from the station), and the Diamond Harbour ferry (which departs from a jetty opposite the station). The Steamer Express inter-island ferries formerly connected with passenger trains at Lyttelton on wharf no. 2 (opposite the station) until they were discontinued in 1976. Other nearby amenities include Lyttelton Main School, a medical clinic, several hotels, and the Lyttelton central business district.

Canterbury Superintendent Moorhouse engaged the services of Melbourne-based contractors Holmes & Co. on 16 April 1861 to construct the Lyttelton rail tunnel. The contract did not cover the erection of stations, but these, including the station at Lyttelton, were also built by the contractor at cost plus a margin of 15%. Work on the contract commenced later that year.

The original plan for the Lyttelton station, as suggested by Provincial Engineer Dobson in 1864, was to have the track terminate at a station on a jetty in line with the rail tunnel, as was subsequently done at Port Chalmers in Dunedin. The following year, the provincial executive decided instead to locate the station in front of the town. This necessitated the reclamation of land for the station and yard, with this being formed during the construction of the tunnel using fill extracted from the bore. Plans for the station included an export shed, goods shed, offices, and a platform.

The station opened on 9 December 1867, coinciding with the official opening of the tunnel, to a crowd of around 500 people when the first train arrived. Some of the first passengers to arrive commented to the effect that the station was not finished, even appearing temporary in nature.

The station building was a small wooden structure with a gabled roof, with dimensions of. Trains were worked to the sides of ships for the transfer of cargo by means of wagon turntables, as the lines for the station yard were at right angles to the wharves. Access to the goods shed was provided by means of a traverser.

Plans for the second station were drawn up in January 1873. John Marshman, General Manager of the Canterbury Provincial Railways, successfully convinced the provincial government to erect verandahs over the station platforms arguing that "... I do not remember seeing anywhere a railway station of the dimensions and importance of that at Lyttelton where people were sent out of doors in all weathers to reach the carriages." The station was brought into service on completion in August 1873.

With several alterations and additions, this station served Lyttelton for 90 years until replaced by a modern structure in 1963. The station offices were placed at right angles to the passenger platforms, originally on the western side of Oxford Street, but later being moved to the other side of the same street in about 1882. The platform was lengthened in 1903 to accommodate an additional two carriages, necessitating the relocation of the lamp room to a position near the engine shed. The railway stores shed was destroyed by fire, presumed to be arson, on 6 November 1937. Following the removal of a siding to Kinsey & Company's store near the station, a extension of the platform at the west end was authorised in 1950, after difficulties were experienced in placing mixed consists (a common practice at the time) at the platform.

The many decades of service provided by this station necessitated several significant repairs or renovations over the course of its existence. In 1910, the District Engineer wrote to the Chief Engineer to point out the many defects that had developed, and made known his preference for the erection of a new station. This was not forthcoming, and he was directed to make whatever repairs were necessary to the existing structure. A later report from the District Engineer in 1935 noted that several buildings at Lyttelton, dating from 1882, were irreparably infested with borer. By the 1950s, years of deferred maintenance had led to the station buildings becoming dilapidated. Despite this, it was not until the late 1950s that a decision was finally made to replace the station.

By the time electrification became a serious proposition for Christchurch in the 1920s, the Lyttelton station was showing its age. As upgrading of the line between Christchurch and Lyttelton was a major undertaking, it was proposed that this would also be an opportune time to replace the Lyttelton station with a new facility. It was also around this time that plans were being prepared for a new station at Christchurch, and it was desired to build a new station for Lyttelton at around the same time.

The Minister of Railways, Gordon Coates, included the construction of a new station at Lyttelton in the programme of works for 1924. Though plans for the station were completed in 1927 and promises made by the Railways Department to build it after the electrification of the Lyttelton rail tunnel, no progress on the matter was forthcoming. The stationmaster noted in 1928 that it was his understanding that the construction of a new station at Lyttelton had been indefinitely postponed. In light of this, he arranged for the station buildings to be painted instead.

The matter of a new station was again raised in the mid-1930s, by which time the state of the facilities at Lyttelton had continued to deteriorate. On 10 August 1936, the same year that plans for the new Christchurch station were approved, the Minister of Railways, Dan Sullivan, stated in an interview that "The matter is receiving consideration at present, but the request has to be considered in the light of requests for stations in other places where there are also very good claims." He went on to say that Lyttelton could expect a new station, but he could not say when this would happen. When the stationmaster requested early the following year to be consulted on the plans for the new station before they were finalised, he was informed by the District Traffic Manager that there were no proposals of even a tentative nature for the erection of a new station at Lyttelton. The station was finally painted in 1940 following concerns expressed by the local council about its appearance, a move that was regarded as being an indication that the Railways Department had shelved plans to build a new station.

The Chief Civil Engineer wrote to the District Engineer on 5 July 1957 to inform him that Lyttelton was next in line for a station upgrade. A survey of the existing building was requested so the Working Estimates for the project could be prepared. The survey was duly completed and, after considering the many faults in the building highlighted by the survey, the Chief Civil Engineer confirmed in writing to the District Engineer on 12 February 1959 that it had been decided to replace the station building rather than try to renovate the existing building. He therefore requested that the requirements of the staff based at Lyttelton be determined, and that plans be prepared for a suitable new structure.

Even before the third station opened, there were doubts about the long term viability of passenger rail services between Lyttelton and Christchurch. The Lyttelton road tunnel would soon become a reality, providing a much more convenient road link between Lyttelton Harbour and the Canterbury Plains. This was expected to enable the growth of road transport as a serious competitor to the railways for the custom of passengers, and concerns were expressed that given this state of affairs, a new station for Lyttelton could not be justified. Despite this, the Minister of Railways John McAlpine announced on 7 August 1962 that the Cabinet had approved a redevelopment of the railway facilities at Lyttelton.

As part of the station redevelopment, the functions of the Goods Office were moved to the former Harbour Board building on the corner of Oxford Street and Norwich Quay. This building was also to house the station master, the railway port superintendent, the goods supervisor, and their respective support staff. Renovation of this building for its new function was underway in September 1962, and was expected to be completed by the end of the year. Following completion of these renovations, and the relocation of the goods office, the old Goods Office building was scheduled for demolition. The demolition was delayed while the power supply for the station was re-routed, as it had been fed through the Goods Office building. The land formerly occupied by this building was reallocated for use as a car park.
Once work on the Goods Office was completed, construction of the new station commenced in January 1963, next to the existing station. The old station remained in use while the new station was being built until 10 June 1963 when the first section of the new station was brought into service. At this time, the old station was demolished in stages to make way for the construction of the remainder of the new station.

The official opening ceremony was held on 14 October 1963 and presided over by the mayor of Lyttelton, Mr. J. B. Collett. Various other dignitaries and invited guests were present, including the Minister of Railways, John McAlpine (who officially opened the station), the local member for parliament, Norman Kirk, and the Railways general manager, Mr. A. T. Gandell. An invitation to attend was also extended to members of the public. During his speech, the mayor expressed his confidence that, despite the impending completion of the Lyttelton road tunnel, and the desire expressed by the Christchurch Transport Board to operate bus services to Lyttelton, both road and rail could coexist to meet Lyttelton's transport requirements. Two buses were provided to convey official guests to the Borough Council Chambers for morning tea.

A new goods shed at Lyttelton was completed and ready for use on 7 December 1970. Many years later, an internal Railways Department memorandum in 1988 noted that the goods shed had been closed.

It was proposed in 1972 to alter the station building to accommodate all of the salaried division staff that were based at Lyttelton. These staff were at the time working in the old Harbour Board building, which was considered to be an unsatisfactory situation. With the reduction in traffic to Lyttelton following the cancellation of suburban passenger services, some of the facilities in the station building were no longer required, and it was suggested that the building could be better utilised to house the remaining staff.

The District Engineer requested on 30 September 1977 that the dock siding at Lyttelton station be removed on the basis that the track was in poor condition and that access to the siding by trains was blocked. The District Traffic Manager responded several days later to say that this track had, in fact, been renewed, and that it was still required for the stabling of shunting locomotives and track maintenance vehicles.

The station platform was shortened in 1980 when it was reported that the curved portion of the platform, east of the station building, was causing problems with clearances. It was determined that this part of the platform was surplus to requirements and therefore its removal was requested. It had previously served both the main line and the dock siding that terminated behind the station building.

Numerous sidings have served private customers in the vicinity of Lyttelton station. None of these sidings remain in service, though the sidings that served the oil companies in the vicinity of Godley Quay, Cyrus Williams Quay, George Seymour Quay, and Charlotte Jane Quay are still physically in place.

The wharves of the Lyttelton port played a major part in the rail operations at Lyttelton station. All railway operations at the port were managed by the Railways Department until the mid-1970s when the port was classified as a container port and the Minister of Railways decided to phase out Department operations there over the next two years. During this transitional period, responsibility for management of the wharves was transferred to the harbour board.

At around the time the rail connection to wharf no. 2 was removed, the Railways Department decided to also rationalise their trackwork on the waterfront and informed the Harbour Board of their plans to disconnect wharves 4 and 7. The Harbour Board inspected wharf no. 4 and determined that rail access to it could continue for several more years provided repairs were made. They were also advised by the Traffic Manager that rail access to wharf no. 4 was still required, and it was therefore decided not to make any changes to this connection. However, the Department decided in October to proceed with its plans for wharf no. 7 and arrangements were made with the Inspector of the Permanent Way for this work to be carried out.

Further modifications were planned to waterfront trackwork in 1982 when the Department notified the Harbour Board that it intended to remove rail access to No. 1 Breastwork. In a missive from the Chief Civil Engineer to the District Engineer on 28 August 1984, it was noted that wharf no. 2 had been disconnected, and that only wharves 3 and 7 retained operable rail connections.

Perhaps the most well-known wharf to the railways travelling public was wharf no. 2, also known as the Steamer Express Wharf, which for over 70 years served as the inter-island ferry wharf for the boat trains that terminated at Lyttelton. From 1902, trains collected passengers from, and delivered passengers to, ferries berthed at this wharf. The ferries were operated by the Union Steam Ship Company until 1974, at which point the Ministry of Transport took over the operation until the service was cancelled in 1976.
Several facilities were installed on the wharf in addition to the railway tracks, including: a wooden platform and veranda which was used by passengers to board and alight from the trains; several windbreak walls; a stock race; a staircase and gangway to board and disembark passengers for the ferries; a cafeteria; a store room; and a main office building, which was used by both the Railways Department and the Union Company until the early 1960s when the Railways Department relocated to a new building. The office was extended in 1954 and used by day by the Railways Department to sell train tickets, and by night by the Union Company to sell ferry tickets.

In February 1965 the Lyttelton Harbour Board decided to construct a new passenger terminal and vehicle loading facility on wharf no. 2 to cater for the new roll on/roll off ferries due to enter service from December that year. To facilitate the construction work, the harbour board arranged for the inter-island ferries to use wharf no. 3 for the remainder of the year, and requested that the Railways Department-owned veranda be shortened to allow the new building to be erected.

The harbour board consulted with the Railways Department on the design of the new facilities and requested that the Department consider a contribution towards the cost of the project. The Department responded with several suggestions, including a request that the board consider amending its plans to allow for a wider platform, as they considered the board's plans for an wide platform to be insufficient. The Department also considered that as the primary beneficiaries of the new facilities would be the Union Company, and that little if any additional revenue was likely for the Department as a result of the improved facilities, that they were not liable for any of the cost beyond any necessary alterations to the facilities on the wharf that they already owned.

Construction of the new terminal had commenced by June 1965 and was completed several months later in December. The Union Company inaugurated the first of two of its new roll on/roll off ferries and the new facilities at a function on Monday, 20 December 1965. The Railways Department maintained a desire to augment the platform, and in 1968 the District Traffic Manager – with the support of the Lyttelton Stationmaster – requested the District Engineer to seriously consider the idea of lengthening the platform to the end of the wharf which would allow for an additional two carriages to be attached to the trains.

Following the cancellation of the inter-island ferries, and at the instigation of the Harbour Board, the District Engineer requested authorisation from the Chief Civil Engineer for the removal of the redundant veranda on 30 September 1976 and was granted such permission on 26 October. On 17 May 1979 it was reported that part of the veranda had been removed but some of it remained as the area beneath it was being used as a car park. It was suggested that the remainder of the veranda be offered for sale to the Harbour Board or removed by the Department. The Harbour Board agreed to purchase the veranda and informed the Department of its intention to eventually demolish it as part of wharf reconstruction works. The Department later agreed on 14 August to transfer responsibility for the veranda to the Harbour Board at no cost.

The Harbour Board advised the Railways Department in August 1979 that rail connections to wharf no. 2 were surplus to their requirements. Based on this advice, the Department decided in October to remove the rail connection to wharf no. 2 and the District Engineer requested that the Inspector of the Permanent Way make the necessary arrangements.

The first train to Lyttelton was a freight consist headed by the provincial railways No. 3 locomotive, which ran through the tunnel to Lyttelton the week of 25 November, two weeks before the official opening of the tunnel and the station. The first passenger train arrived at Lyttelton on 9 December 1867, the date the station was officially opened.

After opening, operations settled down to a schedule of three mixed return services for daily runs between Lyttelton and Christchurch. Passenger traffic on the preceding Ferrymead line had been very light, consisting almost entirely of people living in the vicinity, as the walk over the Port Hills was considered to be too arduous.

For most people Lyttelton was an important transfer point for their inter-island journeys. From 1895, and nightly from 1905, an inter-island ferry service operated between Wellington and Lyttelton, providing the main means by which people travelled between the two islands. At Lyttelton, passengers were required to transfer their own luggage between the ferries on the No. 2 wharf and the trains at Lyttelton station. Beginning in 1902, the express trains pulled up beside the ferries on the wharf enabling the direct transfer of passengers and their luggage between the ferries and the trains. To do this, the trains were hauled past Lyttelton station into a headshunt, from which they were moved by a different locomotive around a sharp curve onto the wharf.

A major improvement in operations to Lyttelton was heralded by the inauguration of electrification on 14 February 1929, when the first electric locomotive-hauled passenger service arrived from Christchurch. This was the first suburban electric train service in the country, and its implementation was based on the successful electrification of the Otira Tunnel in 1923. Introduction of the electric services was a move popular with both train crews and passengers alike, eliminating the nuisance of smoke in the tunnel they had previously endured. For much of their years of service, the electric locomotives provided 20 daily return services to Lyttelton. The economics of their operation and replacement forced their retirement and the de-electrification of the line in 1970.
A Drewery rail tractor was based at Lyttelton in 1936 for a trial period to be used for shunting operations. Members of the shunting staff based at Lyttelton were trained in its use by the locomotive staff, with maintenance carried out by the traffic staff. The tractor was stored in the steam locomotive shed and was used, for the purposes of evaluation, for as much of the shunting work as possible to reduce the amount of time the steam locomotives were required for the work. Later, diesel locomotives began to make their presence felt at Lyttelton, and in 1969 four Hitachi rail tractors were assigned there. However, steam locomotives were still used for the South Island Limited at Lyttelton until the late 1960s.

In response to a request for the Railways Department to cease blocking access to the Breakwater and Launch wharves in winter months when A class locomotives were used to heat the carriages of the Steamer Express trains, the Department sought clearance from the Harbour Board to stand the locomotives on the wharf while the carriages were being heated. Approval was granted in June 1966 for this to happen on the condition that the locomotives venture no further than onto the wharf. This was considered to be a permanent arrangement for wharf no. 2, but only a temporary measure for wharf no. 3 pending the arrival of the second roll on/roll off ferry at which time the ferries and the Steamer Express trains would cease using this wharf. The Working Timetable was later amended in September to authorise the use of A locomotives up to the shore end of the platform on the wharf.

The transfer of mail between the inter-island steamer ferries and trains used to be a significant source of traffic for Lyttelton. Mail items were transported in hampers, bags, or crates, and transferred on and off the ship using slings. Local services were used to transport the mail between Christchurch and the port in postal vans. Following the introduction of the rail-air service in the 1960s, use of the ferries to transport the mail between Christchurch and Wellington declined.

Passenger services between Christchurch and Lyttelton steadily lost patronage following the opening of the Lyttelton road tunnel in 1964. When the line was de-electrified a limited diesel-hauled passenger service was introduced. However, it was not enough to arrest the decline in patronage, and as a result the service was cancelled on 28 February 1972. The "boat train" express services that connected with the Steamer Express ferries were likewise cancelled four years later on 14 September 1976, coinciding with the cancellation of the inter-island ferry services. These latter services were, from 1 December 1970, provided by The Southerner which terminated at Lyttelton.

The Acting District Traffic Manager made the following points in a missive dated 5 February 1982 that give some insight into the type and volume of traffic handled at Lyttelton at the time:

The station building opened in 1963 still exists and is now owned by KiwiRail through Tranz Scenic. The Lyttelton Port of Christchurch now owns the land behind the station building for which access is restricted to authorised personnel. The original Lyttelton station signal box also survives, and is now sited near the station building. It was originally located at the western end of the yard near the tunnel portal. All railway-related facilities on wharf no. 2 have been removed including the railway/ferry inter-modal facilities.

Lyttelton remains a busy rail freight yard that continues to serve the Lyttelton Port of Christchurch. Major sources of traffic for the port include export dairy products, coal, timber, vehicles, and other general container freight. New Zealand Railways Corporation staff were based at Lyttelton station through the 1980s for the management of container traffic, but have since been relocated; all Lyttelton-based railways-related staff now work out of the station building. Railway operations staff have maintained a continuous presence in the station building where they make use of some of the rooms for staff facilities. The station building has hosted or is currently hosting other short-term private lessees including New Zealand Express Transport and the Lyttelton Information Centre.
Beginning with the 1997–1998 summer season, Tranz Scenic have provided day trips for passengers from cruise ships docked at Lyttelton out to Arthur's Pass. Initially, these passengers were collected by coach from Lyttelton and transferred to Christchurch from whence they departed on the TranzAlpine service. From 2000, Tranz Scenic have run special trains which collect the passengers from Lyttelton railway station and take them direct to Arthur's Pass using spare carriages from the TranzAlpine/TranzCoastal fleet. This operation has required the use of some office space in the station building, as well as the station precinct to transfer passengers between trains and buses. Some tour groups travel by train to Arthur's Pass and return to Lyttelton, while other groups only make half the journey by train and complete the trip by coach. As the track adjacent to the station's platform has been removed, passenger trains stop outside the station building on the track nearest the platform, where passengers board or alight from the train. Buses are used to transfer passengers between the trains and the wharf at which their ship is docked for security reasons. Though the number of these special trains varies from season to season, business has been generally improving, with 43 services booked for the summer of 2008–2009.

The Lyttelton Port Company has announced that they will be installing an extended siding at Lyttelton to enable them to handle longer freight trains. The new 24-wagon siding will replace two existing 8-wagon sidings which will reduce the amount of time spent on marshaling the trains. The move is part of a plan to increase their annual container capacity by 40,000 TEUs to approximately 300,000 and to increase the use of the port-to-city container shuttle rail service. Long-term the port hopes to move its operations to new wharves and to remove the existing wharves in front of the town.

Various calls have been made in support of a reintroduction of passenger rail services for Christchurch. Several reports have been commissioned to this effect, some of which have proposed new suburban services along the Main South Line from Lyttelton. Currently there are no plans for any of these proposals to proceed to implementation.

Lyttelton railway station

Lyttelton railway station is the northern terminus of the Main South Line, a main trunk railway line from Lyttelton to Invercargill in the South Island of New Zealand. There have been three stations built at Lyttelton, with the most recent of these still being used for railway purposes.

Canterbury Superintendent Moorhouse engaged the services of Melbourne-based contractors Holmes & Co. on 16 April 1861 to construct the Lyttelton rail tunnel. The contract did not cover the erection of stations, but these, including the station at Lyttelton, were also built by the contractor at cost plus a margin of 15%. Work on the contract commenced later that year.

The station opened on 9 December 1867, coinciding with the official opening of the tunnel, to a crowd of around 500 people when the first train arrived. Some of the first passengers to arrive commented to the effect that the station was not finished, even appearing temporary in nature.

The station building was a small wooden structure with a gabled roof, with dimensions of. Trains were worked to the sides of ships for the transfer of cargo by means of wagon turntables, as the lines for the station yard were at right angles to the wharves. Access to the goods shed was provided by means of a traverser.

A new goods shed at Lyttelton was completed and ready for use on 7 December 1970. Many years later, an internal Railways Department memorandum in 1988 noted that the goods shed had been closed.

The District Engineer requested on 30 September 1977 that the dock siding at Lyttelton station be removed on the basis that the track was in poor condition and that access to the siding by trains was blocked. The District Traffic Manager responded several days later to say that this track had, in fact, been renewed, and that it was still required for the stabling of shunting locomotives and track maintenance vehicles.

The station platform was shortened in 1980 when it was reported that the curved portion of the platform, east of the station building, was causing problems with clearances. It was determined that this part of the platform was surplus to requirements and therefore its removal was requested. It had previously served both the main line and the dock siding that terminated behind the station building.

Numerous sidings have served private customers in the vicinity of Lyttelton station. None of these sidings remain in service, though the sidings that served the oil companies in the vicinity of Godley Quay, Cyrus Williams Quay, George Seymour Quay, and Charlotte Jane Quay are still physically in place.

The wharves of the Lyttelton port played a major part in the rail operations at Lyttelton station. All railway operations at the port were managed by the Railways Department until the mid-1970s when the port was classified as a container port and the Minister of Railways decided to phase out Department operations there over the next two years. During this transitional period, responsibility for management of the wharves was transferred to the harbour board.

Further modifications were planned to waterfront trackwork in 1982 when the Department notified the Harbour Board that it intended to remove rail access to No. 1 Breastwork. In a missive from the Chief Civil Engineer to the District Engineer on 28 August 1984, it was noted that wharf no. 2 had been disconnected, and that only wharves 3 and 7 retained operable rail connections.

In February 1965 the Lyttelton Harbour Board decided to construct a new passenger terminal and vehicle loading facility on wharf no. 2 to cater for the new roll on/roll off ferries due to enter service from December that year. To facilitate the construction work, the harbour board arranged for the inter-island ferries to use wharf no. 3 for the remainder of the year, and requested that the Railways Department-owned veranda be shortened to allow the new building to be erected.

The Harbour Board advised the Railways Department in August 1979 that rail connections to wharf no. 2 were surplus to their requirements. Based on this advice, the Department decided in October to remove the rail connection to wharf no. 2 and the District Engineer requested that the Inspector of the Permanent Way make the necessary arrangements.

The first train to Lyttelton was a freight consist headed by the provincial railways No. 3 locomotive, which ran through the tunnel to Lyttelton the week of 25 November, two weeks before the official opening of the tunnel and the station. The first passenger train arrived at Lyttelton on 9 December 1867, the date the station was officially opened.

After opening, operations settled down to a schedule of three mixed return services for daily runs between Lyttelton and Christchurch. Passenger traffic on the preceding Ferrymead line had been very light, consisting almost entirely of people living in the vicinity, as the walk over the Port Hills was considered to be too arduous.

The Acting District Traffic Manager made the following points in a missive dated 5 February 1982 that give some insight into the type and volume of traffic handled at Lyttelton at the time:

Various calls have been made in support of a reintroduction of passenger rail services for Christchurch. Several reports have been commissioned to this effect, some of which have proposed new suburban services along the Main South Line from Lyttelton. Currently there are no plans for any of these proposals to proceed to implementation.

Lyttelton (Māori: Ōhinehou) is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour, at the northwestern end of Banks Peninsula and close to Christchurch, on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

Lyttelton, New Zealand

Due to its establishment as a landing point for Christchurch-bound seafarers, Lyttelton has historically been regarded as the "Gateway to Canterbury" for colonial settlers. The port remains a regular destination for cruise liners and is the South Island's principal goods transport terminal, handling 34% of exports and 61% of imports by value.

In 2009 Lyttelton was awarded Category I Historic Area status by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) defined as "an area of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value".

According to the 2013 census, the usual resident population of Lyttelton, including neighbouring communities of Rapaki, Cass Bay and Corsair Bay, was 2,859.

Lyttelton is the largest settlement on Lyttelton Harbour, an inlet on the northwestern side of Banks Peninsula extending 18 km inland from the southern end of Pegasus Bay. The town is situated on the lower slopes of the Port Hills, which form the northern side of the harbour and effectively separate Lyttelton from the city of Christchurch. This steep-sided crater rim acts as a natural amphitheatre and a boundary to urban development.

A tunnel through the Port Hills provides direct road access to Christchurch, 12 km to the northwest. The town of Sumner, some 6 km to the northeast, is accessed via Evans Pass. Another settlement at Governors Bay lies 10 km to the west and a frequent ferry service connects the suburb of Diamond Harbour on the southern shore of the harbour.

The uninhabited Quail Island sits in the upper harbour southwest of Lyttelton.

A home for Māori for about 700 years, Lyttelton Harbour was discovered by European voyagers passing by on 16 February 1770 during the "Endeavour"'s first voyage to New Zealand.

Aiming to establish a Church of England colony in New Zealand, the Canterbury Association was founded in 1848. As Lyttelton was a harbour, and had a large amount of flat land suitable for farming and development nearby, it was ideal for a colony.

Joseph Thomas as the agent of the Canterbury Association and its chief surveyor was in charge of preparing the settlement for the settlers. He initially placed the port town at Rapaki and the settlement's capital, Christchurch, and the head of the harbour at present-day Teddington. But none of these initial ideas proved feasible, as Rapaki was not available, as it had been promised to Maori as a reserve, and required reclamation at the head of the harbour for the capital was estimated as too expensive.

Early survey work in Lyttelton was done by Thomas and Charles Torlesse, but most of it until completion in September 1849 was done by Edward Jollie. In his diary, Jollie explains how the streets got their names:

The names of the streets of the three towns I surveyed were taken from Bishoprics and the way it was done was this; as soon as I completed the map I took it to Thomas who putting on his gold spectacles and opening his would read out a Bishop's name to hear if it sounded well. If I agreed with him that it did, I put the name to one of the streets requiring baptism.

Lyttelton being the first-born town got the best names for its streets, Sumner being next had the next best and Christchurch being the youngest had to be content with chiefly Irish and Colonial bishoprics as names for its streets. This accounts for, what to anyone not knowing the circumstances, appears strange, viz: that many of the best English Bishoprics are not represented [editorial note: not represented "in Christchurch"] while Irish and Colonial ones are.

In August 1849 it was officially proclaimed a port. Pilgrim's Rock shows the place where European settlers first set foot in the harbour. The present location of the rock is well inland from the sea, as much of Lyttelton's dockside has been reclaimed from the harbour waters in recent years.

Lyttelton was formerly called Port Cooper (after Daniel Cooper) and Port Victoria. It was the original settlement in the district (1850). The name Lyttelton was given to it in honour of George William Lyttelton of the Canterbury Association, which had led the colonisation of the area.

The "Lyttelton Times" was one of the principal newspapers of the Canterbury region for 80 years, published from 1851 until 1929, at which time it became the "Christchurch Times", until publication ceased in 1935.

On 1 July 1862, the first telegraph transmission in New Zealand was made from Lyttelton Post Office.

In 1870, fire destroyed all the wooden buildings in Norwich Quay, on the main street of Lyttelton.

The Lyttelton Timeball Station was erected in 1876 and started signalling Greenwich Mean Time to ships in the harbour that year. It was one of the world's five working timeball stations until it was destroyed by the June 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The castle-like building was located high on a ridge above the port with extensive views over the harbour. The tower, but not the rest of the building, has been faithfully reconstructed and was once again in working order at the end of 2018.

On 1 January 1908, the Nimrod Expedition, headed by Ernest Shackleton to explore Antarctica left from the harbour here.

The Lyttelton Harbour Board was created in 1877 to be in charge of the harbour's management. It was dissolved in 1989 after the passing of the 1988 Port Companies Act, which forced it to split into two separate organisations, one commercial (the Lyttelton Port Company, currently owned by Christchurch City Holdings, the commercial arm of the city council) and one non-commercial. In 1996 the Lyttelton Port Company registered on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

The 2010 Canterbury earthquake damaged some of Lyttelton's historic buildings, including the Timeball Station. There was some damage to the town's infrastructure, but the port facilities and tunnel quickly returned to operation. The overall quake damage was less significant than in Christchurch itself, due to the dampening effects of the solid rock that the town rests on and its moderate distance from the epicentre.

On a magnitude 6.3 aftershock caused much more widespread damage in Lyttelton than its predecessor due to its proximity to Lyttelton and a shallow depth of. Some walls of the Timeball Station collapsed and there was extensive damage to residential and commercial property, leading to the demolition of a number of high-profile heritage buildings such as the Harbour Light Theatre and the Empire Hotel. Many other unreinforced masonry buildings were severely damaged.

Following the February earthquake it was suggested that the Timeball Station be dismantled for safety reasons. Bruce Chapman, chief executive of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) said there was a possibility that it may be reconstructed. "If we can find a way to dismantle the Timeball Station that allows us to retain as much of the building's materials as possible, we will do so."
However, on Monday 13 June 2011 a further 6.3 aftershock brought down the tower and remaining walls while workmen were preparing to dismantle it.

Much of Lyttelton's architectural heritage was lost as a result of the earthquakes, as damage was deemed too extensive for reconstruction. By June 2011, six buildings in London Street in Lyttelton had been demolished, along with another four on Norwich Quay.
The town's oldest churches have collapsed, including Canterbury's oldest stone church, the Holy Trinity.
Following the demolition of Holy Trinity Church, St Saviour's Chapel was returned to Lyttelton to the site of Holy Trinity in 2013. The wooden St Saviour's Chapel had been relocated from West Lyttelton to Christchurch's Cathedral Grammar School in the 1970s. The Anglican church is now named St Saviour's at Holy Trinity.

On 19 November 2005, it was announced that 60% of the Banks Peninsula District ratepayers voted to amalgamate with the neighbouring Christchurch City Council, which took place on 6 March 2006. This resulted in the creation of a new Christchurch City Council seat for the new ward of Banks Peninsula, and the creation of two Community Boards, the Lyttelton/Mt Herbert Community Board encompassing Lyttelton, Rapaki, Governors Bay, Diamond Harbour and Port Levy, and the Akaroa/Wairewa Community Board, enocompassing Akaroa, Little River, Birdlings Flat, and the settlements of the Eastern and Southern Bays of Banks Peninsula. The Akaroa/Wairewa Community Board was further divided into two subdivisions, namely the Akaroa subdivision, and the Wairewa subdivision.

The town is linked to Christchurch by railway and road tunnels through the Port Hills. At 1.9 km long, the Lyttelton road tunnel (opened in 1964) was the country's longest road tunnel, until the Waterview Tunnel in Auckland opened in July 2017; and the railway tunnel of the Lyttelton Line section of the Main South Line, officially opened on 9 December 1867, is the country's oldest.

Lyttelton has long been the main port of the Canterbury / Christchurch area, having been opened in 1877 by the Lyttelton Harbour Board, later becoming the Lyttelton Port Company with the introduction of the Port Companies Act in 1988.

Between 1958 and 1967 the port saw such prosperity that Kaiapoi, on the coast north of Christchurch, briefly reopened its closed port facilities for a decade, to allow smaller ships to bypass the congested Lyttelton wharves.

In the 1970s the port was chosen as one of the main ports in the South Island to be dredged and upgraded for containerisation, with the container facility opening in 1977, the centenary of the initial opening.

Substantial quantities of South Island coal have been shipped from this port for the past 100 years. The port facilities have provided for LP gas and petrol for the past 50 years. In essence the port could be viewed (based on quantities of materials shipped in or out) as the primary port for energy shipments in the South Island.

Lyttelton was the location for most of the exterior scenes in Peter Jackson's 1996 horror movie "The Frighteners".

Lyttelton is the largest settlement on Lyttelton Harbour, an inlet on the northwestern side of Banks Peninsula extending 18 km inland from the southern end of Pegasus Bay. The town is situated on the lower slopes of the Port Hills, which form the northern side of the harbour and effectively separate Lyttelton from the city of Christchurch. This steep-sided crater rim acts as a natural amphitheatre and a boundary to urban development.

Lyttelton, New Zealand

Lyttelton (Māori: Ōhinehou) is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour, at the northwestern end of Banks Peninsula and close to Christchurch, on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

Due to its establishment as a landing point for Christchurch-bound seafarers, Lyttelton has historically been regarded as the "Gateway to Canterbury" for colonial settlers. The port remains a regular destination for cruise liners and is the South Island's principal goods transport terminal, handling 34% of exports and 61% of imports by value.

In 2009 Lyttelton was awarded Category I Historic Area status by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) defined as "an area of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value".

According to the 2013 census, the usual resident population of Lyttelton, including neighbouring communities of Rapaki, Cass Bay and Corsair Bay, was 2,859.

A tunnel through the Port Hills provides direct road access to Christchurch, 12 km to the northwest. The town of Sumner, some 6 km to the northeast, is accessed via Evans Pass. Another settlement at Governors Bay lies 10 km to the west and a frequent ferry service connects the suburb of Diamond Harbour on the southern shore of the harbour.

The uninhabited Quail Island sits in the upper harbour southwest of Lyttelton.

A home for Māori for about 700 years, Lyttelton Harbour was discovered by European voyagers passing by on 16 February 1770 during the "Endeavour"'s first voyage to New Zealand.

Aiming to establish a Church of England colony in New Zealand, the Canterbury Association was founded in 1848. As Lyttelton was a harbour, and had a large amount of flat land suitable for farming and development nearby, it was ideal for a colony.

Early survey work in Lyttelton was done by Thomas and Charles Torlesse, but most of it until completion in September 1849 was done by Edward Jollie. In his diary, Jollie explains how the streets got their names:

The names of the streets of the three towns I surveyed were taken from Bishoprics and the way it was done was this; as soon as I completed the map I took it to Thomas who putting on his gold spectacles and opening his would read out a Bishop's name to hear if it sounded well. If I agreed with him that it did, I put the name to one of the streets requiring baptism.

Lyttelton being the first-born town got the best names for its streets, Sumner being next had the next best and Christchurch being the youngest had to be content with chiefly Irish and Colonial bishoprics as names for its streets. This accounts for, what to anyone not knowing the circumstances, appears strange, viz: that many of the best English Bishoprics are not represented [editorial note: not represented "in Christchurch"] while Irish and Colonial ones are.

In August 1849 it was officially proclaimed a port. Pilgrim's Rock shows the place where European settlers first set foot in the harbour. The present location of the rock is well inland from the sea, as much of Lyttelton's dockside has been reclaimed from the harbour waters in recent years.

Lyttelton was formerly called Port Cooper (after Daniel Cooper) and Port Victoria. It was the original settlement in the district (1850). The name Lyttelton was given to it in honour of George William Lyttelton of the Canterbury Association, which had led the colonisation of the area.

The "Lyttelton Times" was one of the principal newspapers of the Canterbury region for 80 years, published from 1851 until 1929, at which time it became the "Christchurch Times", until publication ceased in 1935.

On 1 July 1862, the first telegraph transmission in New Zealand was made from Lyttelton Post Office.

In 1870, fire destroyed all the wooden buildings in Norwich Quay, on the main street of Lyttelton.

On 1 January 1908, the Nimrod Expedition, headed by Ernest Shackleton to explore Antarctica left from the harbour here.

The Lyttelton Harbour Board was created in 1877 to be in charge of the harbour's management. It was dissolved in 1989 after the passing of the 1988 Port Companies Act, which forced it to split into two separate organisations, one commercial (the Lyttelton Port Company, currently owned by Christchurch City Holdings, the commercial arm of the city council) and one non-commercial. In 1996 the Lyttelton Port Company registered on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

The 2010 Canterbury earthquake damaged some of Lyttelton's historic buildings, including the Timeball Station. There was some damage to the town's infrastructure, but the port facilities and tunnel quickly returned to operation. The overall quake damage was less significant than in Christchurch itself, due to the dampening effects of the solid rock that the town rests on and its moderate distance from the epicentre.

On a magnitude 6.3 aftershock caused much more widespread damage in Lyttelton than its predecessor due to its proximity to Lyttelton and a shallow depth of. Some walls of the Timeball Station collapsed and there was extensive damage to residential and commercial property, leading to the demolition of a number of high-profile heritage buildings such as the Harbour Light Theatre and the Empire Hotel. Many other unreinforced masonry buildings were severely damaged.

The town is linked to Christchurch by railway and road tunnels through the Port Hills. At 1.9 km long, the Lyttelton road tunnel (opened in 1964) was the country's longest road tunnel, until the Waterview Tunnel in Auckland opened in July 2017; and the railway tunnel of the Lyttelton Line section of the Main South Line, officially opened on 9 December 1867, is the country's oldest.

Lyttelton has long been the main port of the Canterbury / Christchurch area, having been opened in 1877 by the Lyttelton Harbour Board, later becoming the Lyttelton Port Company with the introduction of the Port Companies Act in 1988.

Between 1958 and 1967 the port saw such prosperity that Kaiapoi, on the coast north of Christchurch, briefly reopened its closed port facilities for a decade, to allow smaller ships to bypass the congested Lyttelton wharves.

In the 1970s the port was chosen as one of the main ports in the South Island to be dredged and upgraded for containerisation, with the container facility opening in 1977, the centenary of the initial opening.

Substantial quantities of South Island coal have been shipped from this port for the past 100 years. The port facilities have provided for LP gas and petrol for the past 50 years. In essence the port could be viewed (based on quantities of materials shipped in or out) as the primary port for energy shipments in the South Island.

Lyttelton was the location for most of the exterior scenes in Peter Jackson's 1996 horror movie "The Frighteners".