It was a sunny fresh morning 7th of September 2025, we were a bit tired after the private function last night but decided to visit the market anyway. The Historic Rochester Villa is hidden in a beautiful place next to Heathcote River in Woolston, however, we located it relatively easy.
The Market organized in a pretty small area, which was quite crowded when we took a step into it. There were many people trading much kind of interesting things such as handmade clothing, old toys, books, some sort of tableware and other antique glass items. Some of them taken our attention more, than the others however all of the stuff was interesting to view and browse through.
As we learned from Sarah and Helen Milburn, the market is organized by people, who love history, and rescuing items from times past, this is also a component of sustainability and general respect for the environment and people.
At Christchurch’s long-running Shabby Chic Market Day, established in 2009, visitors are invited to slow down and discover beautifully crafted pieces from past decades – objects made to last. The market celebrates reducing, reusing, and recycling as a thoughtful alternative to today’s throw-away culture.
The market was located around the villa, but there were two rooms inside the building, which were open to public. There rooms were filled with a lot of interesting stuff as well. I discovered there some old sheet music written by J. S. Bach and others. It is a shame I don’t play piano much these days, so, I didn’t buy it as it was clear – I am not going to play them anyway. May be next time… someday… The other room inside the villa surprised me by some old records, stacked in an old box. I found a record with a music related to Earnslow Steamer Ship, which is still in service in Queenstown. That was an interesting discovery for us, as we saw this ship during our time in Queenstown.
Walking through the market, my wife Sofia bought two vintage tea spoons with images of Kaikoura and Westport for $1 each. We met some interesting people there; one of them was Philippa Leach. She is creating wonderful shiny items from some clean and colored plastic, crystals, glass and other materials. When sunlight comes through her creatures, the room fills up with magical reflections, which is very difficult to explain – you definitely need to see it. Of course, we bought one of them. It costed us on $10, but gives priceless emotions.
There were more people whom I want to tell you about, one of them is Jen Evans, who is running Pinky Things, she was selling custom painted tableware. The other person was Sarah, who is creating wonderful watercolor pictures under Ross Cottage Creative label. These pictures are magnificent, she makes limited number of licensed copies and she told us, that her pictures also available online.
On our way back we noticed Amnesty International at the entrance selling plants which is also, as Helen Milburn told us, a part of the market philosophy. She said that Peace & Justice are very meaningful for their long term stallholders, and friends, and being a part of creating awareness in the local community is important to the organisers at The Shabby Chic Market Day.
We spent about 3 hours on the market and departed back home, however, the emotions of the visit stay with us for much longer.
Thank you for reading.
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Best regards, Alex.
EventsHub team.