FLOUR MILLS ON THE AVON.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20098, 29 November 1930, Page 15

FLOUR MILLS ON THE AVON.

SOME EARLY CHRISTCHURCH HISTORY. (specially whit-ten for the press.) [By Dr. F. W. Hilciendoef.J I. A Hour mill driven by water from the Avon was contemplated at the lay-out of the City of Christchureh, and a reserve for a water race is shown in its earliest maps. The water was to be taken from the Avon at the Armagh, street bridge and returned to it at the Hospital bridge. The mill-race reserve is now the broad walk running between the two bridges on the west side of Eolleston avenue and passing in front of Christ's College and the Museum. Its handsome trees make one of the glories of Christchureh. The actual fall of the river between the two points is 3ft Tin, but a dam between the high banks at Armagh street would have given a fall of about Bft. This race, however, was never used.

INWOOD'S FIRST MILL. The first flour mill erected was built ! on a small creek running into the Vai- | mairi, ju3t whore the creek 5s now crossed by Straven road about 100 yards south of Fendalton road. Its builder was Mr 1), Inwood, father of the Uev. F. 11. Inwood. Mr Inwood, sen.,'arrived in the Sir George Seymour in ISSO, and it is thought he built the mill soon after. In May, 1853, . however, flour sold ex the Hampshire at Lyttelton for £7O a ton, .and that would almost place linvood's Mill at ;i date subsequent to that. In 1859 Air Inwood, having built a new mill in Hereford street, apparentlyabandoned the old one, for all its grain spouts, elevators, and mill stones had been removed before, in 3869, the building and water wheel were sold to Sir William Cuddon, who had arrived in the Egrnont in the early 'fifties. Mr Cuddon never used the mill for making flour, but crushed malt and oats. The creelc that drove the mill wheel had its source about half a mile away in a paddock on the east side of Clyde road about half-way between the Fendalton road and the \Vaimairi-bridge. In this paddock were several springs, and more springs rose on the mill property, some within 30 yards of the dam. But the supply of water soon began to fall off, and a big spring breaking out about 15 yards below the dam so lessened the water that the wlieel could no longer be used. A hot air engine was installed,; and some embers of the Malvern "coal used to drive the engine were thrown against the old building, causing it to be burnt down —this being about the year ISSO. A few jards from the old flour mill, Air Cuddon built, malt houses in 187374, and the men excavating for the germinatiiig floor came across a Maori skull and a great haul of greenstone implements arid ornaments. The malt houses were afterwards sold to the Canterbury Seed Company in 1906, and were finally pulled down in 1923. On the same ground Cuddon built in 1883 a largo mill for the preparation of oatmeal, pearl barley, and split peas. This was called Cuddon's Mill, and tbnt Dart, nf St.rnven ronrl hetween Fendalton roa<J and the Waimairi was called, then and long afterwards, Cuddon's road. It probably lost its name when the bridge was built across the Waimairi opening Straven road northward towards the Fendalton road. This mill also was burnt down, apparently about 1890.

Mr Cuddon also built a brewery in this locality, but it was not on the creek we have been dealing with so far, but on the main Waimairi stream, about one hundred and fifty, yards southwards. The brewery was built in 1879, and was pulled down in 1906. Practically all remains of . these numerous mills have now disappeared. Alterations in the position of the springs have reduced the creek to such very small dimensions that no ono would now think of building''a mill there. A heavy timber, charred by fire, embedded in the bank of the creek, may be seen just below the bridge, and this was probably part of .some structure connected with the dam or the tail race. Oil the Waimairi a weir and an ornamental water wheel may be seen from the road on the site of the old brewery.

THE RICCARTON HOUSE WATER WHEEL. If Inwood's mill was not erected till 1553, then the first water wheel on the Avon was that installed by Mr Deans at Riccarton. The wheel was imported from Ayr in 1552, was made of iron keyed together, was 12ft in diameter, and developed five horse power. It was used for crushing corn, cutting chaff, etc. The dam is still in position, but the wheel was dismantled in 1929, and the mill race was converted into a swimming pool for the Boys' High School. The pool is surrounded,by the old Riccarton farm buildings, which are now used as dressing, sheds.

THE UPPER AVONHEAD MILL. The next flour mill built on the Avon seems to have been erected by Mr W. B. Bray, the civil engineer; who in 1862 was engaged to lay out the surface drainage of Christchurcli. The mill was situated on the main stream of the Avon near its head waters, and its dam. was situated about two chains upstream from Avonhead road, just behind Mr Bray's wonderful house, which with its two-chain frontage, cob walls, thatched roof, and dormer windows, still stands in the Hon. George Witty's garden. The mill was built some time prior to 1859, for in that year it was, together with the estate of Avonhead, leased by Bray to Joseph Hill, father of Mr T. J. Hill, of Lane and JSTeave's office. Mr Hill never used the building as a flour mill, and it was pulled down about 1863 and made into a barn. The water wheel, a wooden one, was placed over a small deep spring which used to rise about five yards upstream from Avonhead road, into which it was feared stock might fall. A deep spring, the main one of the Avon headwaters, jußt behind Bray's house, was the receptacle for worn-out iron work, and the metal can still be felt there. The part of the stream below the mill dam where Mr Witty's gold fish now are, was occasionally blocked at the culvert that passed under Avonhead road, and the temporary dam was used for the now obsolete process of washing sheep before they were shorn.

THE LOWER AVONHEAD MILL. A second mill also known as the Avonhead Mill had a longer life. Section 56 of the Canterbury Settlement, a very early selection, lay on the Avon between Yaldhurst road and Waimairi road. It was selected by Felix Wakefield, a brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, was 100 acres in extent, and was known as the Peerswick Estate. Gibbon had brought out a well-known stallion called The Peer, whose name is perpetuated in one of the streets in the neighbourhood. Another early selection was that of H. Leslie, Section 114, which lay just to the nortK of Peerswick. Leslie died just as " his "ship dropped . anchor in Lyttelt'on in- January, ISSI, and his wife, with a son aged 2 rears,, took up residence on the section. To that son, now aged 82, and still living on the section, I am indebted

for most of the following information. The mill "was built on the Peeragek Estate at a spot about 500 yards upstream from-the Waimairi road, -whore Wakefield avenue and Godley street, now meet. Its date was probably 1874. and it was built by, or for, Joseph Moffat. The Moffat family owned several other flour mills at different dates, among others that on the county race at Dar field, and that on the L I at Lincoln- One of the mill stones of this latter, with a small brass tablet, now serves as the doorstep to the Lincoln! Parish Church. The water wheel was about 15 feet in diameter, 10 or 12 feefc wide, and. was of course undershot. - The dam was a bathing place for Turrell s school boys. After J. Moflafc left Avonhead, the mill was worked by another owner, and then by Mr John Hamilton. 1* was burned down twice, the second, time in the 'eighties, and then Mr J. E. Hanson built a new mill for Hamilton on the Riccarton road, nearly opposite Hanson's Store. It is probable that the old stones were moved, to the new mill, which was worked by steam, and was finally pulled down, in 1925. The rest of this Avonhead story is -extraordinarily tangled, but the following is the most probable sequence of events! After the flour miH was destroved and its relics removed, Mr Mardon used the same dam to mill the flax which grew plentifully on Peerswick and the country • west-of it. lie abandoned the old undershot wheel ana installed a turbine. At about the same time Mr Hawler, who had a soap and. candle works at Woolston, started a branch establishment on the Avon, about 50 yards west of Waimairi road, on the south bank of the stream. 'ln© old mould candles going out of fashion, and perhaps some difficulties over the pollution of the stream, caused the soap and candle works to languish, and Mardon 's water power, not being sufficient for his needs, Hawler leased -the soap works buildings and steam engine- to Marden, who used them for flax mill Leonard Hlarper, on. his property of Ham, just east of Waimairi road, had built ornamental dams on tne Avon, and these are still to be seen, th© water from one _of them drivi 4ft iron water wheel which Mr Edgar Stead removed a few years ago from Heathcote, where for thirty years had pumped artesian water up tothe Rhodes Convalescent Home. When the flax mill moved down near its refuse, washing into the stream, polluted tiiess Dam dams and to kill the trout in the river. An action at law was therefore brought before Mr Justice Ward, andJ?*™* ft by an injunction was secured stopping the alleged pollution The mdf, ceased operations, but^ while flax and. tow were still stored there, ite shed was used for social functions, afte » dance one night, candta were Li alight, the tow was ignited, and the whole mill burned down. The stack stood on the ground for many veare and the old boiler beside it. to 1921 the bricks of _ the chimney J®* sold to go to Cheviot, while in about 1918 the boiler was removed toJSocK burn, for use'as a furnace chimney o* i-n +he ctmola of the steel works there. 1 Mr Marion had the misfortune to lose a son in the waters above the flour mill dam. He was out on the river or dam in a canoe, when his canoe capsized and the youth was found drowned, entangled in the water-cress. _ Numerous traces of this series ot mills are still to be seen. The flow Sill dam, with its original timbers, is still standing in part, though of eourse pierced to allow the river to through, and one can also see the timber frame that supported the water mains of the flax mill and soap-works can be seen from the Avon bridge on the "Waimairi road. Bricks and concrete lie on the bank and in the stream, and the river is spanned by a bridge built in 1923 out of the masonry relics. A picture of the bridge accompanies this article. (To be eontinuea.)