Richmond once Bingsland

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 20

Richmond once Bingsland

Richmond: A Regional History. By G. W. Walsh. Privately published. 48 pp.

Richmond is one of the most unobtrusive of Christchurch suburbs. This quality is, it might be thought, acknowledged on the title page and cover of Mr Walsh’s book, where after Richmond is inserted, in very much smaller lettering, Christchurch. Born in the area himself, and a great enthusiast for it, Mr Walsh nonetheless seems to acknowledge that there will be many who have never heard of it. Outside Christchurch this will, no doubt, be true enough. Even within the city there are likely to be many who have only a general idea of where the suburb is, and where its boundaries lie.

To those who are ignorant of Richmond and its location, as of its history, Mr Walsh’s booklet is to be commended. It sets out the affairs of the district since its settlement in the early years of the province. If the arrangement and ordering of the material owes more to enthusiasm than to logic, and the construction of the sentences sometimes seems similarly random, Mr Walsh nonetheless deserves .thanks for setting down what he remembers of the area, and what he has been able to glean from other printed sources and from old identities in the district.

This booklet will give the residents of what was once known as Bingsland and is now, mercifully, given a more euphonious title, some knowledge of the history of their suburb, and provide a useful quarry for historians who, hereafter, write about Christchurch on a larger scale and more formally.