name	Lyttelton
area total km2	14.4362
population as of	2006
population total	3072
population density km2	auto
pushpin map	New Zealand
pushpin label position	right
coordinates display	y }}

Lyttelton (Māori: Ōhinehou) is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of 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 2006 census, the usual resident population of Lyttelton, including neighbouring communities of Rapaki, Cass Bay and Corsair Bay, was 3,072.

Location

Lyttelton is the largest settlement on Lyttelton Harbour, an inlet on the north-western 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 north-west. The town of Sumner, some 6 km to the north-east, is accessed via Evans Pass. Another settlement at Governors Bay lies 10 km to the west and a 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.

History

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

In August 1849 it was officially proclaimed a port.

Lyttelton was formerly called Port 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.

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.

In 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 January 1, 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.

Governance

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.

Transport

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) is the country's longest road tunnel; and the railway tunnel of the Main South Line, officially opened on 9 December 1867, is the country's oldest.

Lyttelton Port

Lyttelton has long been the main port of the Canterbury / Christchurch area, having been opened in 1877 by the Lyttelton Harbour Board, which has since become the Port Lyttelton Company. The port saw such prosperity at times that Kaiapoi, on the coast north of Christchurch, briefly reopened its closed port facilities for a decade between 1958 and 1967, 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 that would be dredged and upgraded for containerisation, with the container facility opening in 1977, the centennary 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 natural 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.

Attractions

One of the features of Lyttelton is the Timeball station. The Lyttelton Timeball Station was erected in 1876 and was one of only five remaining timeball stations in working order in the world until partially destroyed by an earthquake in 2011.

The castle-like building is located high on a ridge above the port with extensive views over the harbour. It was operated as a museum by the Historic Places Trust, open for visitors from 10:00am–5:30pm daily, but was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake. After the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the Historic Places Trust has chosen to demolish the station.

Pilgrim's Rock shows the place where European settlers first set foot in the harbour. The location of the rock is well inland from the sea, because much of Lyttelton's land has been reclaimed from the ocean since the Pilgrims arrived.

The Holy Trinity Church, the oldest stone church in Canterbury, was built out of stone transported from Quail Island on land intended for the Cathedral of the Diocese.

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

Earthquake damage

The 2010 Canterbury earthquake damaged some 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 many other buildings were severely damaged.

It was initially 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 M_L aftershock brought down the tower and remaining walls while workmen were preparing to dismantle it.

Very few of Lyttelton's stone-built heritage buildings remained intact following the 2010 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. By June 2011, six buildings in London St in Lyttelton had been demolished, along with another four on Norwich Quay. The town's oldest churches have totally collapsed, including Canterbury's oldest stone church, the Holy Trinity.

References

External links

Lyttelton Harbour visitor information

Lyttelton Community Portal Our Story

Lyttelton Port Company

First issue of Lyttelton Times, 1851

Category:Suburbs of Christchurch Category:Populated places in New Zealand Category:Ports and harbours of New Zealand Category:NZHPT Category I listings in the Canterbury Region

cs:Lyttelton da:Lyttelton de:Lyttelton et:Lyttelton es:Lyttelton fr:Lyttelton ko:리틀턴 id:Lyttelton, Selandia Baru it:Lyttelton nl:Lyttelton ja:リトルトン nn:Lyttelton på New Zealand pl:Lyttelton fi:Lyttelton sv:Lyttelton, Nya Zeeland zh:利特爾頓

name	Humphrey Lyttelton
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton
alias	Humph
birth date	May 23, 1921
died	April 25, 2008 Barnet General Hospital, London, England
origin	Eton, Buckinghamshire, England
instrument	TrumpetClarinet(Voice)
genre	Jazz, Dixieland
occupation	ComposerTrumpeterRadio presenter Cartoonist Writer
years active	1945–2008
label	Calligraph Records
associated acts	Tony CoeAlan Barnes
notable instruments	}}

Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. He was a cousin of the 10th Viscount Cobham and a great-nephew of the politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttelton, who was the first man to represent England at both football and cricket.

Early life and career

Lyttelton was born at Eton College, Buckinghamshire, where his father, George William Lyttelton (second son of the 8th Viscount Cobham), was a house master. (As a male-line descendant of Charles Lyttelton, Lyttelton was in remainder to both the Viscountcy Cobham and the Barony of Lyttelton.) From Sunningdale Preparatory School, Lyttelton duly progressed to Eton College. At Eton, Lyttelton fagged for Lord Carrington and formed his love of jazz. He was inspired by the trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Nat Gonella. He taught himself the instrument, and formed a quartet at the school in 1936 that included the future journalist Ludovic Kennedy on drums.

After leaving school, Lyttelton spent some time at the Port Talbot steel plate works in South Wales, an experience which led to him becoming what he termed a "romantic socialist". After being called up for war service, he served in the Grenadier Guards, being commissioned as a second lieutenant on 29 November 1941, and seeing action at Salerno during Operation Avalanche when he came ashore with his pistol in one hand, and his trumpet in the other. On VE Day, 8 May 1945, Lyttelton joined in the celebrations by playing his trumpet from a wheelbarrow, inadvertently giving his first broadcast performance; the BBC recording still survives. Following demobilisation after World War II, he attended Camberwell Art College for two years.

In 1949, he joined the ''Daily Mail'' as a cartoonist, where he remained until 1956. Several of his cartoons have recently been on display in various branches of the Abbey National bank, as part of their new advertising campaign. He was one of the collaborators with Wally Fawkes on the long running cartoon strip ''Flook''.

The jazzman

Like many ex-servicemen, Lyttelton received a grant for further study. He went to Camberwell School of Art, where he met Wally Fawkes, a fellow jazz enthusiast and clarinet-player. It was Wally who, in 1949, helped him to get the job with the ''Daily Mail'', at first writing the words for ''Flook'', Fawkes's comic strip.

They had both joined the George Webb Dixielanders in 1947. Webb was an important catalyst in the British post-war jazz boom.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s Lyttelton was prominent in the British revival of traditional jazz forms from New Orleans, recording with Sidney Bechet in 1949. To do so he had to break with the Musicians' Union restrictive practices which forbade working with jazz musicians from the United States. In 1956, he had his only pop chart hit, with the Joe Meek-produced recording of "Bad Penny Blues", which was in the UK Singles Chart for six weeks. As the trad jazz movement (not quite the same thing as revivalism) developed, Lyttelton moved to a mainstream approach favoured by American musicians such as trumpeter Buck Clayton; they recorded together in the early 1960s and Clayton considered himself and Lyttelton to be brothers.

By now his repertoire had expanded, including not only lesser known Ellington pieces, but even "The Champ" from Dizzy Gillespie's band book. The Lyttelton band — he saw himself primarily as a leader — helped develop the careers of many now prominent British musicians, including Tony Coe and Alan Barnes

In 2001, Lyttelton and his band added traditional jazz elements to the Radiohead song "Life in a Glasshouse" on the ''Amnesiac'' album.

On 11 March 2008, he announced that he would cease presenting BBC Radio 2's "Best of Jazz", after 40 years.

On 23 July 2008, Lyttelton was posthumously named as BBC Radio 2 Jazz Artist Of The Year, voted by radio listeners.

The Humphrey Lyttelton Band

Humphrey Lyttelton's eight-piece band featured, aside from himself on the trumpet and clarinet: Ray Wordsworth on the trombone; Jimmy Hastings on the alto sax, clarinet and flute; Jo Fooks on the tenor saxophone and flute; Rob Fowler on the tenor sax, baritone sax and clarinet; Ted Beament on the piano; John Rees-Jones on the double bass and Adrian Macintosh on the drums. Following his death the band continues to give concerts performing his music. The trumpet part is played by Tony Fisher with occasional guest spots by Sue Richardson.

The band maintained a busy schedule, frequently performing sold-out shows across the country. Performances occasionally included a guest singer, or a collaboration with another band. During the 1990s the band toured with Helen Shapiro in a series of ''Humph and Helen'' concerts. They also featured in several Giants of British Jazz tours with Acker Bilk and George Melly and John Chilton's Feetwarmers.

Lyttelton had a long established professional relationship with UK singer Elkie Brooks. After working together in the early 1960s they rekindled their working partnership in early 2000 with a series of sold out and well received concert performances. They released the critically acclaimed album ''Trouble in Mind'' in 2003 and continued to perform occasional concerts in support of this work.

Radio personality

From 1967 until April 2007, Lyttelton presented ''The Best of Jazz'' on BBC Radio 2, a programme which featured his idiosyncratic mix of top-quality recordings of all ages, including current material. In 2007 Lyttelton chose to cut his commitment to two quarterly seasons per year, in order to spend more time on other projects. In 1972 he was chosen to host the comedy panel game ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' on BBC Radio 4. The show was originally devised as a comedic antidote to traditional BBC panel games (both radio and television), which had come to be seen as dull and formulaic, and in keeping with the staid middle-class "Auntie Beeb" image. Lyttelton continued in this role until shortly before his death, and was famed both for his deadpan, disgruntled, and occasionally bewildered style of chairmanship, and for his near-the-knuckle double entendres which, despite always being open to an innocent interpretation, went much further than most BBC pre-watershed humour. ''ISIHAC'''s success had considerable influence on the manner in which comedy was presented on radio, and Lyttelton's persona was a significant part of that success: he was a straight man surrounded by mayhem. At the time of his death, Lyttelton was the oldest active panel game host in the UK, being two and a half years older than his closest rival, Nicholas Parsons.

On Tuesday 22 April 2008 Lyttelton and the ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' team were due to appear in the stage version of the programme at the Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth. Due to his indisposition, his place was taken by Rob Brydon, but a pre-recorded message from Lyttelton was played to the audience ("I'm sorry I can't be with you today as I am in hospital - I wish I'd thought of this sooner!"). The panellists on that night were Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Jeremy Hardy.

As well as his other activities, Lyttelton was a keen calligrapher and President of The Society for Italic Handwriting. He named his own record label "Calligraph" after this extracurricular interest. This label, founded in the early 1980s, not only issues his own albums and those of associates, but also re-issues (on CD) his analogue recordings for the Parlophone label in the 1950s. He is reported to have turned down a knighthood in 1995.

Illness and death

On 18 April 2008 Jon Naismith, the producer of ''I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue'', announced the cancellation of the upcoming spring series of ''ISIHAC'' owing to Humphrey Lyttelton's hospitalisation to repair an aortic aneurysm. Rob Brydon and others were asked to deputise for Lyttelton during the tour shows, but Lyttelton postponed his operation and managed to perform on all but the last night. A further email on 21 April 2008 reported that the BBC were "unclear precisely how long Humph's recovery period will be" but Lyttelton was "otherwise fine and in very good spirits". Lyttelton died peacefully following his surgery on 25 April 2008 with his family around him. BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 1995 episode of ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' as a tribute on Sunday 27 April, and a retrospective programme presented by Kenneth Clarke on Wednesday 30 April 2008. Radio 4 celebrated ''Humphrey Lyttelton Day'' on Sunday 15 June 2008, including a new profile of ''ISIHAC'' by Stephen Fry called ''Chairman Humph - A Tribute''.

After his death, the controller of Radio 4, Mark Damazer, said: "He's just a colossally good broadcaster and possessed of this fantastic sense of timing. [...] It's a very, very sad day but we should celebrate and be very grateful for how much he did for Radio 4, really terrific."

Responding to news of Lyttelton's death, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood wrote on the band's blog ''Dead Air Space'': "We were all sorry to hear of Humphrey Lyttelton's death - he was an inspiring person to record with, and without his direction, we'd never have recorded/released ''Life in a Glasshouse''. So go and find "Bad Penny Blues", and celebrate his life with some hot jazz."

Lyttelton was survived by his four children: a daughter from his first marriage to Pat Braithwaite, and two sons and a daughter from his second marriage to Jill Richardson. Richardson, to whom he had been married since 1952, predeceased him in 2006.

On 25 April 2010, two years after Lyttelton's death, a celebratory concert entitled "Humphrey Lyttelton - A Celebration Concert" was held at the Hammersmith Apollo to celebrate his life, works and contribution to music.Singer Elkie Brooks and many prominent British jazz musicians appeared at the concert, along with panellists from ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. The event was organised and hosted by his son Stephen Lyttelton, who is also the founder and Chairman of "The Humph Trust", an organisation set up after his death to support young up and coming jazz musicians and to provide sponsorship and support. The event was opened by the 2010 winner of the Humphrey Lyttelton Royal Academy Of Music Jazz Award, Tom Walsh, who played Horace Silver's "Song for my Father" with his quintet from the Royal Academy of Music.

Notes

Books

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''Last Chorus: An Autobiographical Medley'' (JR Books Ltd: London, October 2008) (224pp.; ISBN 1-90621-718-1) (published posthumously)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''It Just Occurred to Me...: An Autobiographical Scrapbook'' (Robson Books Ltd: London, September 2006) (224pp.; ISBN 1-86105-901-9

Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer, Humphrey Lyttelton: ''The Little Book of Mornington Crescent'' (Orion: 2000) (112 pp.; ISBN 0-7528-1864-3)

Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Humphrey Lyttelton, Barry Cryer, Willie Rushton: ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue: the Official Limerick Collection'' (Orion: 1998) (128 pp.; ISBN 0-7528-1775-2)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''The Best of Jazz'' (Robson Books: London, 1998) (423pp.; ISBN 1-86105-187-5)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''The Best of Jazz: Vol 2 — Enter the Giants'' (Robson Books: London, 1998) (220pp.; ISBN 1-86105-188-3)

Julian Purser ''Humph: A discography of Humphrey Lyttelton 1945-1983'' (Collectors Items: 1985) (49 pp.; ISBN 0-946783-01-2)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''Why No Beethoven?: Diary of a Vagrant Musician'' (Robson Books: 1984) (176 pp.; ISBN 0-86051-262-2)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''Jazz and Big Band Quiz'' (Batsford: 1979) (96pp; ISBN 0-7134-2011-1)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''The Best of Jazz 1: Basin Street to Harlem: Jazz Masters and Master Pieces, 1917-1930'' (Taplinger Publishing Co: London, 1978) (220pp.; ISBN 1-86105-188-3)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''Best of Jazz'' (Robson Books: 1978) (224 pp.; ISBN 0-903895-91-9)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''I play as I please: The memoirs of an Old Etonian trumpeter'' (MacGibbon and Kee: 1954) (200pp.; B0000CIVX1)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''Second chorus'' (MacGibbon and Kee: 1958) (198 pp.; B0000CK30P)

Humphrey Lyttelton: ''Take it from the Top: An Autobiographical Scrapbook'' (Robson Books: 1975) (168 pp.; ISBN 0-903895-56-0 )

External links

Humphrey Lyttelton official site

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, ''BBC Radio 4'', official site

The Best of Jazz, ''BBC Radio 2'', official site of his Monday night show

Calligraph Records official site

Humphrey Lyttelton at the The Radio Academy, with audio clips

Blowing Humph's trumpet 80th birthday tribute by David McKie at ''The Guardian''

In praise of ... Humphrey Lyttelton on his 85th birthday

The South Bank Show, ITV, UK on 23 March 2007 broadcast a tribute show, here is a clip.

Photo and profile of Lyttelton

Tributes

Lasting Tribute Obituary and tributes

Times obituary

Independent Obituary

BBC Comedy Obituary

''The Observer'' Barry Cryer, Melvyn Bragg tributes

''The Independent'' Jeremy Hardy tribute

''The Telegraph'' Sandi Toksvig tribute

''The Observer'' Graeme Garden remembrance/tribute

''The Guardian'' Iain Pattinson (writer of Humph's ''Clue'' scripts) tribute

''The Times'' A second Barry Cryer remembrance/tribute

Category:1921 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Alumni of Camberwell College of Arts Category:BBC people Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:British radio DJs Category:British radio people Category:Deaths from aortic aneurysm Category:Disease-related deaths in England Category:Dixieland trumpeters Category:Dixieland clarinetists Category:English calligraphers Category:English cartoonists Category:English jazz bandleaders Category:English jazz trumpeters Category:English radio personalities Category:I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Category:Mainstream jazz clarinetists Category:Mainstream jazz trumpeters Category:Old Etonians Category:Old Sunningdalians Category:Parlophone artists Category:Swing clarinetists Category:Swing trumpeters Category:English socialists

cy:Humphrey Lyttelton de:Humphrey Lyttelton es:Humphrey Lyttelton fr:Humphrey Lyttelton pl:Humphrey Lyttelton fi:Humphrey Lyttelton