This photo is from late 1950s shows the Railway station and good shed and on the left in the background is the oil well office which sat there unused till the early 1960s . Here is grain being loaded for railing to wherever it had been sold to.2183 sacks of grain dispatched from Chertsey 25th of March1880 with 3000 still to go. This was the largest amount of grain ever done at the station. Sometime later in the 1900s the Govt had a limit on cartage of 40 miles to protect the Railway so grain etc had to be taken to rail for cartage. Burnetts motors was the main transport which had a depot in Chertsey managed by Mr D W Doig that carted to Rail here. But some other famers with their own trucks also did. It remained very busy until the introduction of Silos on farms and the cartage rules were relaxed
Below are some pages from the Chertsey Gymkhana and Trotting club program from around the 1930s wwhich was a popular day out for people in those days with southbound express dropping off crowds from Christchurch and buses running out from Ashburton, it was held for over 100 years on an Easter monday . The biggest crowd to attend the meeting was in the late 1960s when Cardigan bay a famous race horse was on show after his return from the USA and the crowd was over 10.000
 |  |
 |  |
This photo of the Chertsey store taken in the early 1960s is when it was a very busy place.in those days it had two petrol pumps,farm deliverys three days per week and everything you needed for daily life was sold here.The small shed in the background was left from the 1800s and was the saddlery shop. | The Chertsey Tavern though since this photo was taken now has a verandah on the front half covered in as nowdays smoking is banned in bars eating places etc and has to be done outside so on a winters night you can still see people who havnt yet kicked the habit sitting outside freezing and i guess enjoying a smoke. |
 |  |
