Airedale Place in the Central City, Christchurch

Airedale Place in the Central City- formerly Gosling’s right-of-way and Gosling’s Lane. Formerly Goslings Lane. Named after Joseph Gosling (1792?-1883). Re-named Airedale Place. William Gosling (1820- 1900) and his family arrived on the Randolph in 1850. His father, Joseph Gosling, a blacksmith, and his sister, Mary, arrived in 1863. William Gosling bought land for them in Salisbury Street west. At a city council meeting held 5 April 1880, it was reported that Gosling’s right-ofway had been “channelled, formed and shingled”. Gosling’s Lane first appears in street directories in 1892. Re-named Airedale Place in 1914.A reasonable amount of information from the library website. As early as 1880 there was a death notice for someone on this street. In 1899 there was sections for sale. Joseph died in November 1883 and the death notice said that his funeral will leave his residence on Salisbury St. There were at least two businesses here as in 1907 a workshop was for sale and Osborne’s Yard was looking staff. In 1914 residents requested that the street be renamed Salisbury Crescent. This obviously didn’t happen as there were council reports in 1914 and 1924 about renaming the street Airedale Place. Airedale is a place name in Yorkshire. Both names overlapped for a few years. In 1926 the Lucas Brothers were selling their business here. In 1936 there was a fire at H Willis & Co Foundry at 26 Airedale Place. They were similar businesses so it is possible that H Willis was the new owner of the business that the Lucas Brothers were selling. In 1945 two women were charged with using their premises as a common gaming house. The Gosling family – both William and Joseph were living on Market Place and both were blacksmiths. In 1880 / 1881 Joseph was on Victoria St and William still on Market Place and both were described as out of business. The roll for 1885 has Joseph on Victoria St and out of business still but no William on the roll. As Joseph died in 1883 aged 91 it took a couple of years for the roll to catch up. Joseph is buried at Barbadoes Cemetery along with his sister Baston Mary Gosling. I couldn’t find shipping records for Joseph. William Gosling probably ended up living at a property called Coonour assuming that the library linked the correct William to Joseph. The ancestry website wasn’t much help but William who came out on the Randolph was a blacksmith so it is probably correct. Many of the family trees on the ancestry website have William’s father as James Gosling but you know how much I trust the information on family trees. I don’t trust family tree information. What is annoying me is that I know that I have searched the Gosling name previously for something totally different but can’t remember why. I will have to confess that I didn’t actually walk this street as I didn’t feel comfortable or safe doing it. Airedale Place runs off Salisbury St and it is several two story blocks of social housing which was built in 1966. They had earthquake repairs done in 2016 and the tenants apparently made a fuss about the disruption to their lives.