Lincoln Township

The township of Lincoln is located on the edge of the Canterbury Plains in the South Island of New Zealand, about 22 kilometres southwest of Christchurch in the Selwyn District.

The town was named after the Earl of Lincoln who had been a foundation member of the Canterbury Association. Lincoln was founded in 1862 after James Edward Fitzgerald subdivided and sold some of his freehold land. He arranged the site in a grid naming the four outer belts North, East, South and West, and the inner streets Robert, Maurice and William, while the main streets were named after himself, James, Edward, and Gerald.

Lincoln initially grew with the arrival of the railway in 1875, and while it served the district well with branches to Little River and Southbridge, time and the evolution of better roads and road transport saw the railway close in 1967.

In 1878 the School of Agriculture was established to provide agricultural education. The main building on site was named Ivey Hall after the first Director, William Edward Ivey. After being renamed Canterbury Agricultural College, it become known as Lincoln College in 1962, and later Lincoln University in 1990.