The Story Of Mill Island

Press, Volume C, Issue 29638, 7 October 1961, Page 8

The Story Of Mill Island

[Specialty written for "The Press” by ROBYN JENKIN}

“Down by the old mill stream, Where 1 first met you.” could well have been the theme song for Christchurch lovers in the 1860’s and the mill referred to was the one built on Mill Island, the small island in the Avon to the right of the Hereford street bridge, Nowadays, the island sees nothing more lively than a few ducks and water rate, not to mention the bodies and bicycles on its banks during the students* bicycle race, but in its heyday, the island supported one of two mills driven by water-power on the Avon. Apparently a bill had to be passed before permission was granted to build a mill. Even so. it must have been something of an eyesore, judging by the comment scratched on the negative of a photograph taken of the mill by Dr Barker. “U you had ever passed the Yev never would have passed the Bill" The original mill was built by a Mr Lane and was opened

in November, 1859. It was always known as Lane's mill, even though it passed to Daniel Inwood in 1882. The western branch of the river, on the Public Library side, was dammed up, forcing the water round and through the narrower eastern channel on the town side.

Early photographs of the mill, show it surrounded by flax, with the huge waterwheel slowly turning in the water on the eastern side of the island. A foot-bridge con nected the mill with the river bank, but in the flood of 1868. when the Waimakariri overflowed into the headwaters of the Avon, the rails of Lane’s bridge on the western side had to be removed to allow for the rush of water. The flood reached the highest part of Oxford Terrace and only a swirl in the water beside Lane’s mill indicated the weir below.

When the mill finally closed down and was used no more for grinding, it became a doss-house, where the old men of the town could get a meal and a straw bed for the night. But even that passed

Finally the mill was dismantled, trees and beds of shrubs replaced, the untidy flax, and it became a haven for ducks, the only remaining link with its past being the name. Mill Island.