Story: Memorials and monuments

The statue of Canterbury founder John Robert Godley was toppled by the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011. By then the statue was back in front of the cathedral. It had been restored to its original position in 1933, and the site it vacated north of the cathedral became the home of the Christchurch war memorial. When the Godley statue fell in 2011, two time capsules containing newspapers from 1918 and 1933 were discovered in the plinth. The statue was re-erected in February 2015.