In 1851, early in Canterbury's European settlement, an area of land at Godley Head comprising 476 acres, 3 roods, 21 perches was designated as a Defence Reserve and set aside for general government and military purposes. An adjoining block of land of 180 acres 2 roods extending to the sea was taken over by the Marine Department as a reserve in 1876. Over the following years the land was only occasionally used for military manoeuvres. It is these two blocks of land which today comprise the Godley Head Reserve managed by the Department of Conservation.
In 1934 approval was given for building of coastal batteries around New Zealand as part of the defence programme planning prior to the outbreak of World War II. The plan illustrates the country's first response to the imminent threat from Europe and the Pacific. The Godley Head site was conceived as a counter bombardment battery to ensure Lyttelton constituted a 'defended port', that is, a port in which merchant ships can seek sanctuary from enemy raiders. This was decided in 1937, setting Godley Head's design and purpose before real consideration of invasion. The construction programme followed over the next ten years with the first approved being Mototapu Island, Auckland and Palmer Head, Wellington. At this time a number of the forts built in the 1880s because of the "Russian Scare" were re-commissioned - as they had been during World War I - and modernised. However, the Godley Head site was one of the forty new coastal batteries and forts which were also commissioned by the Defence Construction Council and it was proposed that two 6 inch gun batteries be sited here. This was a long range coastal defence gunnery, its anti-invasion role to prevent the enemy gaining access to the harbour by bombarding any approaching enemy ships.
Once the exact location of guns E! and E2 was decided it became necessary to move the existing lighthouse as it limited the field pf fire for both weapons. This limiting would have produced a "dead water lane" between the guns ranging approximately 17,000 yards out to sea. The 1865 tower was demolished and the light mounted on a new tower built lower down the cliff face in front of the fog signal building. Work at the site began early in 1939 with widening and upgrading of the access road when the Army requested that the existing track be widened into a road capable of carrying heavy traffic. This work was completed by the end of the year, resulting in a road 16 feet wide over a distance of 4.5 miles. A local contractor (supervised by the Public Works Department) undertook to construct two gun emplacements, two Battery Observations Posts (BOPs), a plotting room, miniature range and an engine room for the searchlights. Searchlights were located at the bottom of the cliffs and a 400 foot (120m.) access tunnel was completed by August 1939. It was not possible to begin building the gun pits though, as the type of available guns was currently limited and undecided.
However, within days of the beginning of the war two 60-pounder field guns were hastily installed on the headland at a position north-west of where the 6-inch Mk XXIV guns were later emplaced. This interim measure to provide some protection for Lyttelton harbour was called Taylor Battery (because it was closer to Taylor's Mistake) and began operation from September 9th, manned by 30 gunners provided by the Territorial Forces Special Reserve. The gun emplacements were the only structures of the camp at this time with tented accommodation and make-do cooking arrangements. "Meals were eaten in the open, and it is alleged that on occasions the food was literally blown from the plates before it could be eaten." A walled enclosure was later provided behind the open emplacement of these W.W.I guns which were of limited effectiveness but continued in use until their replacement by two 6-inch Mark VII guns in September 1941. Just five months later Taylor Battery was de-manned and the guns dismounted (sent for use on Moturoa Island) because the Godley Head Battery was now in action.
Work had begun on the originally planned 6-inch battery on the Godley Head promontory in 1940 and two Mark XXIV guns (E.1 and 2) were mounted by 24th December, 1941, their overhead covers added by April the following year. (In 1942 the lighthouse in its altered position was completed and the old one demolished.) It had been discovered that the siting of the BOP at the top of the hill was unsuitable as for most of the year it was enclosed in mist and could not be used, so observation was done from the enlarged Command Post while the high sited BOP became the Fire Command Post. In 1943 a third emplacement (E.3) was completed, this time with a 360° uncovered mount. Although the gun itself was delivered to the site it was not mounted until March 1946, after the war had ended.
With a major building programme between 1939 and 1943 Godley Head camp provided accommodation and other facilities near the battery for personnel - barracks, officers' quarters, mess rooms and kitchen, recreation room, boiler house, showers and ablution blocks, offices, married quarters, garages, etc. (The last of these buildings was removed in the late 1990s.) Members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps arrived to serve at the camp in August 1942 undertaking many of the duties around the fort. The 60 - 80 force of women operated the searchlights, kept observation at the BOPs etc. and operated the radar until April 1945.
It was a large and very busy community responsible for all the various activities carried out here. Although this was the last of the 6-inch batteries built as part of the World War II defence programme, it was operational by late 1941whereas most others were not mounted or operational until late 1942. It was actually planned before the Second World while many of the others were built as wartime activities. The extensive use of concrete in the construction of many of these buildings suggests that the complex, which included two radar stations, was expected to have a lengthy use.
By November 1943 the threat in the Pacific had declined because of the United States' presence and the whole of the complex at Godley Head, though not fully completed, was put on “care and maintenance”, i.e. no longer fully operational. The two radar stations continued as before and the guns had to be kept in readiness for firing within ten minutes.
The enemy was never confronted by the might of the Godley Head defences. Only after the war it was discovered that in June 1941 the Norwegian whaler “Adjutant”, acting as an auxiliary for an armed German Merchant ship, had laid ten magnetic mines in deep water outside Lyttelton Heads. It is probable that they were defective when laid as none of them were subsequently detonated or ever seen again.
The Godley Head Battery and Camp operations were steadily run down from 1945 till 1948. In 1948 the Compulsory Military Training Act was passed and Godley Head was re-activated after designation as a corps training camp. The last intake of eighteen year olds marched out of Godley in 1958, the year the CMT Act was repealed and the coastal artillery was disestablished within the NZ Army. The Godley Battery guns and much of the camp was subsequently broken up or transported away.
From 1958 the buildings were used by regular and territorial forces. In 1966 the army vacated the area and Toc H, a youth organisation, leased the camp area. In 1977 the army resumed control of the reserve and held exercises there until 1983 when the Lands And Survey Department took over control. The Department of Conservation has managed the land since 1987. Army use of the land has also continued sporadically.
In 2002 the Godley Head Heritage Trust was established. In conjunction with the Department of Conservation its aims are to:
*Preserve and maintain the historic assets located on Godley Head.
*Undertake educational activities pertaining to the area.
*Provide historical data and research into the installations and sites.
*Develop public support and involvement in the maintenance of the historic assets through sponsorship, grants and donations from the public, business houses and other bodies. The boundaries for the Trust's area of interest are the same as for the proposed historic area.
