Operating years The first buildings on the Lyttelton Gaol site began construction in 1851, with work carried out by William Chaney and the design by
Benjamin Mountfort. The exact opening date of the gaol is not known. The gaol's rules and regulations were first published in 1857, and the buildings were largely completed by 1861. It was the first gaol in Canterbury. The building was cornered and faced with stone from
Ōtamahua / Quail Island. The main gaol building was surrounded by a high stone wall, the top of which was embedded with broken glass and metal spikes. Convicts from the prison were used as
hard-labour gangs doing public works construction, particularly reclamation and construction of wharves for the Port of Lyttelton, as well as roads and retaining walls, many of which still exist today. A newer and larger gaol was planned to be built in
Addington, New Zealand, which opened in the 1870s.
William Donald was the medical officer at the gaol during the 1860s. Seven men were hanged at Lyttelton Gaol for murder between 1868 and 1918. The high concrete walls of the gaol at the rear and on one side remain, and are archaeologically significant as one of the earliest uses of concrete in New Zealand. ==References==