Town Crier hangs up his hat

Christchurch’s Town Crier will soon give his last shout as he announces his retirement from the post he has held since 1989.

He is a well-recognised personality walking the streets in his eye-catching costume, but not many people would know the bearded man wearing a red coat, waistcoat and tricorne hat and carrying a brass bell, is named Stephen Symons.

Mr Symons, who is now 68, applied for the job after former Christchurch City Councillor David Cox suggested the city needed a town crier to announce local events. "I saw a picture on the front page of The Press of a man wearing 18th Century gear and thought, 'I can do that'. The Council recognised my genius and the rest is history.”

He had worked as an assistant factory manager for a seed manufacturer in Auckland before moving to Christchurch with his wife and two children. He was born in Britain and moved to New Zealand when he was eight years old.

Mr Symons didn’t expect to stay in the Town Crier job, which is part-time, for so long. His first day was September 1, 1989. He is retiring this week, 26 years and 10 months later. There was a hiatus after the February earthquake before he headed back to the streets of the Re:Start Mall in October 2011.

He has enjoyed the role but says he is tired - “I’m absolutely cream crackered” - and ready for more time for projects of his own, including writing books. He already has three novels published online in the fantasy adventure genre.

“I've thoroughly enjoyed being the Town Crier, it's been wonderful meeting all these different people and interacting with people and the thing I will miss is interacting with the little ones during the day. They all look up at me with these big eyes. Mostly they're fascinated but the occasional one is terrified."

The downsides of the role are being stared at and being mistaken for a pirate. He has been confused with Santa Claus and associated with the American revolution and is looking forward to not having to explain his outfit in future: "I will never again have to say, ‘No I am not a pirate’.”

The earthquakes have made the central city a challenging place to work. He was standing in Cathedral Square when the February 22 quake hit and he heard a boom as the buildings crashed around him and then dust filled the air. "My immediate thought was, ‘That's the Cathedral gone."

Going back out on the city streets post-quake was surreal. “It was quite strange but like everyone else, I was too wrapped up in the moment to think on a wider scale, it wasn't until a couple of years later that I really started to see the wider ramifications and long term implications of it.”

He has missed having the Christ Church Cathedral as his backdrop and says there is still a lot of work to do rebuilding the heart of the city, but he hopes someone else will take over as Town Crier. "I'd like to think I've laid the groundwork for someone in the future and that the tradition will be picked up.”

He has just a few more days left in the job. "After that, I'll quietly saddle up, find a sunset and head off into it."