FLOUR MILLS ON THE AVON.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20104, 6 December 1930, Page 19

FLOUR MILLS ON THE AVON.

a^*^ HWST " S >RCHJ«s toryrrl WBITTES TOR TB* PMSsJ (U" 3 . -j IW F w. Hilgexdokt.] [By v*- *' H- «" AT HEREFORD " STREET- . ,-iU was one ot' the most Ifce ne ~ J). Inwood, while mill on the Waimam conveyance from the ilo£ssion of the island m the Ptolfll ' f fiereford street bridge conU perches, and being Town i*i»g*ll? The date given by one f is May 14th, 1855, but Ssfer took place in Moorf o Su perintendency, which started L that the mill did not t till November 19th, I«5'J. water rights were, by pr°ordinance, conveyed to the Mr Inwood built a dam the island; the eastern "** Tol the stream holding; the mill A the western branch ser\For many years iij fot ?! w hitebait coming up the Sacked at this dam and Bfff thick under the weir that a rtfj X,, COT ild be caught in a tew wheel was of the under- " mto b 18 Hannibal Lane as a going tr.r £SOOO after which it " as jflcern Mill. Difficulties too*n »i I? { the -svatcr rights due cellars caused the mill to j, jooding cei< a out 1895 and dnra® ***<s* was used by p as tor soup kitchen and doss "J? In August, 1897, Mr Lane sold Hi®. the Mayor and Council'^^7City of Christchurch for jjjrftfie J e taken iSO ' 'L afterwards. On February 'f ISM Dr. I"ng. f° r the Chr ? st ; ? 5 Beautifying Society, asked that iTbe hSafd over to the Society ?Wine with native trees and iRd it was officially planted by fmUipthe Mayor, Mr C. Louisson, ijjWorsmp j iag sinee e . !aaCe of 'too beauty spots of Christ"w remnants of the dam are still to JS# in the of beams lying .hSv inthe river on the west side, IS tie bridge, and making a Sracterirtie ripple at that spot; and ™toi all of the stone walls on the "tad are relies of the substructure of ft, mill louse. The original use of rtjijlanJa wmmemorated in the name c f the Old Mill Tearooms closo by on (Word terrace.

THE kiccarton mill

The Eiceartim mill "was probably the text (me built, and it is the only one that snrrim „ , , MrW D. "Wood came to ><ew Zealand ii the Baadolpk in 1850, leaving his fjtkert min at Great Blakenham in Sushi. After some ventures in sheepfuming he took »• trip Home in 1853, ad next year returned with a flour mTI to be driven by TOd. After many difficulties thii ma ereeted and started work «a in. -which it was situateibeing for many years called "Windmill road, now Antigw street ByMM-Wood found the Tirid power imuSkient for his needs, ad entered istaf a lease for some land i tie Avon at JEiccarton—the lease 'Bf dated October 15th, 1861. The ft-aind mill were built by 1862, and „ *)r their successors have been in risn ever ainre. A law case im- ; jjig tie water rights in 1863, the staient of S water wheel by turiaa 1880,• and the replacement of kagmal atones by steel rolls in 3,aa ksdmirks in the history of ;J»blL T&e business at Kiccarton •aairied on by Mr "Wood and his WftiD 1592, when they moved to ■aiOb at Addington. The late Allen took possession in 1896, aldtailt the mil], using steam power : ® aijmetfoii with the water, while aftit motors were introduced in ®i. 1» 1918 tleming and Co., of In'Baipll, bought the property, which totontinnally remodelled, extend&W.l). food's original windmill !a ®fdb;Christchur eh till 1863, when aT* *7 of Leithit on a high sand- ® tee.3t waa for many years a landJong since disappeared, at hrarees of -power used by the for flour milling in an interesting series. 'W lffiS-1862, water 1562-1892, steam mills at Addington, 1892jjp 'TOiicity 1916 to the present TOff CARLTON MILL. aiill was built in or near fK** fete'being fixed by the fact **■ Stevens ar®'ea'' towards the end that his first job was jjman for the survey of race. The surveyor was who discovered the «sb, an'' afterwards was ajjjlS ® Teremakau. The race water from a dam on Sjjji two chains downiw, SS® the footbridge that now Avon at the south end of sWf f to the mill site, which t ns above the CarlSoon found that the m the Avon dam was t mJ. - the A dam on the shingle 15 afeen in the stream Sittgirt, ' oll avenue. The race ttlri P*wate property in its '" l * lka«iH Boundary road •Huaffij™, near Holmwood ? l!h S !n^ivTate P ro P ert y again - 1 an| l there joined Tllis extension was e of 1860. The 2?«#Uaf-, the bottom of the A^tWhrt*-' osa °f water, so ere puddled with ? "water was then SWLS? -I° Wer reach of the g fat & ' x t 3 'banks raised by * times, however, " ®®lb bored holes in SrJhe water supply fee. was a, source of fl'Wst. The mill and [WJ on property owned Wakefield, and was M Woodfort. and T. time bore the » iB6O and started > while Stevens took carried out imne.w race - The H®eatelT'tStiff, and in r °f the arcliinf!! r . 3 the wat eT-race the Carlton st"ifc^® s ' or possibly in the c^use t^-^»K- haß " !t0 be vin " H lt,zens - In the orie f. t .? rov i rice a towing V-' • wide had been

reserved on both sides of the Avon all the way from the high-tide maTk to the Fendalton bridge. The mill and some fences had. been erected on this towpath, and the doubtful right of location had been passed from hand to hand without question. At the instance of Mr E. E. Green, the Avon Koad Board finally took the matter up, and asserted the public right-of-way by arming a party with saws and axes, and cutting a path through all obstacles, including th" mill-house itself. No further action was taken, however. In 18S1 the Avon Koad Board passed away, and when tlie St. Allans Borough Council came into being a committee of residents was formed to secure the reopening of the tow-path. Legal action to that end was in course of preparation when, in 1903, the area was merged with the City. A new Council, a new -spirit of public interest, the increasing age and lessening value of the buildings, combined to procure an easy solution of the difficulties, and the riverbank was cleared of this 45 year old obstruction. To return to the history of the mil!,

rather than of the land it occupied, it is found that some time in the seventies it was worked by J. L. Wilson, and afterwards by his son-in-law, George King, who lasted into the eighties. In about ISBO the mill was famous for the number of bats that it harboured, though the native bats are now apparently quite extinct. Before 188G the mill was out of action. It and the race had fallen into the hands of the Colonial Bank, who were its owners when the mill was pulled down about 1900. That was the end of the mill; no trace of it now remains, excepting a road's name, •which the City Council has apparently overlooked. But the race, as Mr Tulliver could have foretold, did not take death so easily. I'ro'n the toot of Uossall street it ran alongside Carlton Mill road, which was then only half a chain wide. After tlio mill went out of action about ISSS, the race became a source of trouble to the health authorities, who insisted on its being kept clean—a task that the Colonial Bank win umvillin.l to undertake, since it could brius in no return. The part

trom Uossall street downwards was therefore bought in 1886 by Mr W. T. 'Charlewood, who filled part of it in to give frontages to St. Ronan's and other properties west of it, while tlie part esiist of Rhodes street was given to the St. Albans Borough Council, who used it to widen Carlton Mill road, from Rhodes street to the Mill House. I'ho remainder of the road, ? m *-' le Mill House to the bridge, was widened m 19*21) by filching part of the park. The upper part of the race is still in existence. Its intake can be seen m the Wairarapa, opposite the end of i'niton avenue, and its course observed through private properties southward of that point. On reaching liossall street it apparently runs underground and discharges into the .won bv a cascade near the Millbruok reserve. I'or the iact.-. above recorded, 1 aiu indebted to Messrs Henry \\ <j<«l, George Harper, l'\ 11. C'allaghan, T. Searell, C. Hastings Bridge, F. (J. 0. Cuddon, Kdgar Stend, K. Neave, T. J. HiJI, R. E. Green, Henry Leslie,

W. T. Charlewood, J. E. Hanson, and the Hon. George Witty. In compiling their notes many inaccuracies must have crept in. and I should be grateful for corrections. (Concluded.)