Dewsbury Lane in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Dewsbury Lane in Sydenham – Little Queen Street and Dewsbury’s Lane. Named after Benjamin Dewsbury (1801?- 1886). Little Queen Street is mentioned in the Star in 1879 and appears there as late as 1909. Dewsbury was a Methodist lay preacher. He arrived in Canterbury in 1863. Dewsbury’s Lane is described in The Press in 1882 as “a narrow right-ofway between Battersea Street and Gladstone Street”. First mentioned in street directories in 1887 so the street had two names for a time. Dewsburys Lane was made a public street from 1 January 1888.A reasonable of information from the library website for a tiny street. I will have to confess that I didn’t know that this lane existed as it is so tiny and I probably wouldn’t attempt to drive down it.In 1879 a cottage was for sale on Little Queen Street but after that date both names were used until 1909. In 1882 the Board of Heath wanted an inquiry into the sanitary conditions of the street and it can’t have improved as in 1887 there was a letter to the editor of The Star headed A Sydenham Stench. The writer suggested that the residents of the street should use the nightman rather than using a cesspit or disposing of their nightsoil according to their own sweet will and pleasure.In 1887 the residents asked the council to take the necessary steps for making it into a public street. The council must have been happy with that as in December 1887 it was declared that it would become a public street from 1st January 1888.In 1886 there were well built cottages for sale. I was amused by a court case in 1905 when a man was accused of visiting a questionable house on the street. In 1925 bundles of letters were found in a vacant section and they had been stolen from a nearby post box. There was at least one house for sale in 1941 and it doesn’t seem like there were many people who lived here. There were two men with the name Benjamin Dewsbury and the father died in 1886 and the son died in 1905. Benjamin senior lived on Antigua St but possible had business premises on Colombo St. This street seems to have been mostly developed after Benjamin senior’s death and he died at his son-in-law’s house. This lane just looks like an alleyway and I didn’t know that it was here and I thought that I knew this area well. The lane runs between Wordsworth and Battersea Streets and I used to walk down Wordsworth every week day when I worked at a bank on Colombo St.