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Story: Communes and communities

Meal time, Chippenham

Meal time, Chippenham

A visitor to the urban community of Chippenham (left) shares a meal with residents Howard Gray, Marian Logeman and Peter Lowe in 1972. Chippenham was established in 1971 in a Victorian mansion in suburban Merivale, Christchurch, and the following year occupied the house next door as well. Its early residents were strongly politically active, and the community was the site of Greenpeace and HART (Halt All Racist Tours) meetings, as well as gay activism, and planning for New Zealand’s first women’s refuge. Marian Logeman (later Hobbs) was a Labour MP from 1996 until 2008, becoming a cabinet minister and then assistant speaker. In the early 21st century Chippenham survived as part of the Heartwood Community.

Using this item

New Zealand Listener

Reference: 3 April 1972, p. 9

by Roy Sinclair

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How to cite this page

Caren Wilton, Communes and communities – Communes: 1960s and 1970s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/28116/meal-time-chippenham (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Caren Wilton, published 31 March 2011.

Comments

Elspeth Preddey
27 March 2018
Absolutely fascinating to see people I knew so well in later days: Howard and Barbara Gray and my Wellington Central Member of Parliament, Marian Hobbs. This period of activism was vital to the Peace movement, the women's rights and gay rights campaigns that I was part of much later on; as well as inspiring a whole generation of creative arts and crafts and literary and Environment efforts to flourish in NZ and beyond. I feel grateful such photos are now accessible as a way of paying tribute to the early members of Chippenham.