Carlton Mill Road in Merivale – formerly Carlton Street. Named after the Carlton Mill, a local flour mill. Richard Woodford founded the original Carlton Mill about 1853. Carlton Mill Road is first mentioned in The Press in 1871 when a Mrs Baber advertises for a general servant. First appears in street directories in 1887. Re-named Carlton Street on 7 March 1904 after amalgamation of St Albans with the city in 1903. In 1919 residents asked the city council for it to be returned to its original name of Carlton Mill Road. Residents felt there was confusion with Carleton Road (re-named Kirkwood Avenue).
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. There was a lot of information on Papers Past and it sounds like Richard Woodford only owned the mill for about 10 or 15 years. It got rather confusing and he moved to Kaiapoi after he went bankrupt in 1869. There were lots of birth notices plus many death notices. In 1870s there were complaints about the millrace damaging the road but in 1876 engineers report said that the millrace wasn’t damaging the road. In 1897 and 1899 residents were still complaining about the condition of the road. In 1880 several sections were for sale and possibly connected to the Carleton Mill being for sale in the same year. In 1898 there was a report of bats being seen near the river. I love bats. There was at least one shop called Moneys Store. A private hospital called Santa Cruz was mentioned in 1920s. In 1935 a guest house was refused permission to operate on the street as such businesses weren’t permitted to operate on this street. I was especially amused by a story from 1963 were a sheep escaped from Hagley Park and caused havoc on the street. The description of the public and the police trying to capture the sheep was funny. The mill also seems to have occasionally been referred to as Avon Mill.
Carlton Mill Road runs from Bealey Ave to Rossall St and for a fairly short street it has a large number of dwellings. There are several tower like blocks of multi dwellings that were built in 1970s, 1990s and a huge number built in 2000. A couple of nice villas from 1920s and I thought that there was a house from 1900 but that was outdated information as it has now been demolished. The Christian Science Church has an unusual looking building. There was an entrance to a house with the words Woodford Grace on it but I couldn’t see the house as it was a long driveway. Edited to say that I googled Woodford House and it is a passive house. It is worth googling and checking out their website. It wouldn’t let me post the link. Along the riverbank behind the houses there was the Carlton Mill Reserve and I didn’t attempt to walk along it as it gave off a private keep out type of vibe but when I was on the other side of the river I did see people walking there.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 