A group of volunteers have helped give a historic site in Christchurch a new lease of life.

The volunteers from All Saints Church in Sumner worked with Christchurch City Council contractors to plant hundreds of trees in the red-zoned area on Wakefield Ave.

The site used to be home to a church, the Sumner Croquet Club and Sumner Redcliffs RSA.

The church and the RSA buildings were damaged in the February 22, 2011, earthquake, and demolished in 2015.

The croquet club, which was on land at risk of rock fall, was forced to close.

A lychgate and small memorial garden containing the ashes of 30 church members is all that remains at the site, which has been home to two Anglican churches over the past 150 years.

The small group of church members, known as the Friends of All Saints Sumner Memorial Garden and Lychgate, have been carrying out working bees since December 2023 to restore the site.

The lychgate was restained and the broken slates on its roof had been replaced. The once overgrown memorial garden has also been maintained.

Said group spokesperson Liz Conly: “We're absolutely delighted to see the area now all cleaned up and tidy.

“It's sort of honouring the site and leaving it for future generations as a beautiful place, which will enhance Sumner and acknowledge the history.”

The lychgate was built in 1944 in memory of 28-year-old Flying Officer Lister Charles Mulholland, a former church choirmaster and organist, who was killed in World War 2. Mulholland’s Hudson bomber crashed into the sea near Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, in 1942.

The bodies of the crew were never recovered.

A community planting day saw 300 natives planted as part of the wider restoration of the Port Hills red zone.

The city council plans to do more planting along a large section of the Wakefield Ave red zone.

Most of the area will remain behind the security fence because of rockfall danger. But the public can now access the lychgate as the fence has been moved back.

The work has been achieved in time for the 150th anniversary of the All Saints Church from November 24-29.