Rowley Avenue in the suburb of Hoon Hay, Christchurch

Rowley Ave in Hoon Hay – Named after the Rev. Thomas Rowley (1797?- 1877). Rowley was the son of the Rev. Richard Rowley of Middleton Scriven, Shropshire. He had been Dean-designate of

Christchurch Cathedral but never came to take up his position. He bought several blocks of land, among which was Rural Section 85, 200 acres on Riccarton Road. His son, Thomas, arrived in Canterbury in 1853 and claimed the land on behalf of his father. He built a cob cottage, Middleton, which is now the site of Middleton Grange School. First appears in street directories in 1962.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. I got a bit confused with all men called Thomas Rowley and many of the family trees on Ancestry website were equally confusing especially the one who claimed that they can trace their family tree back to Adam and Eve. There is a wikipedia page for the family. The first Thomas Rowley was born in 1740, his son Richard Rowley was born 1767 and next Thomas Rowley was born 1796 and died 1877. The Thomas Rowley who came to New Zealand was born in 1831 and died in 1903. His brother John Cotton Rowley also came to New Zealand. Thomas came to New Zealand in 1853 on the Minerva and returned to England in 1863. In 1874 he gave ferrets to the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society and they were released into high country of Canterbury. Thomas Rowley owned a lot of land in Canterbury including most of the Square. He named his property Middleton and built a cob cottage on the land. He sold the property to Charles Bowen when he left New Zealand. Charles Bowen renamed it Middleton Grange.

Information from Papers Past mentions new subdivision in 1960. Many entries were in 1972 when there was a ballot for crown sections.. Same year there were tenders for building new kindergarten, new school and new shops including a Post Office. The Rowley Ave Community Hall wasn’t actually on Rowley Ave but on McCarthy St. The Chapel gets a mention from 1977 onwards. At least half the houses on this street were Housing Corp houses. The NZ Labour Party held meetings at 59 Rowley Ave and that will because there was a connection to the Kirk family. I can’t remember if John Kirk lived there or if his mother Ruth Kirk lived there. I do remember meeting Ruth Kirk and John Kirk’s ex-wife at this address. There were entries in the 1980s that I remember. The kindergarten was burgled in 1983 and I was on the Kindergarten committee those day and they made such a mess. In1986 several homes were raided by the police looking for weapons and the children from these homes were badly behaved that day at the kindergarten. In 1986 there was an explosion in a house and five youths were hurt. They had been doing something called huffing. In 1987 the Post Office was closed and I had occasionally worked at this Post Office.

I walked this street today and it hasn’t changed that much from when I had lived nearby. There is still a chapel as well as the school and kindergarten. There have been a few changes in the shops since I knew the area. The valuation website said that all the houses were built in 1960s and 1970s. Recently some of the Housing Corp houses have been demolished and replaced with two or three houses on the sections. There used to be a large house which if I am remembering correctly had disabled people living there. I couldn’t tell if it is still used for the same purpose. There is a powerbox in the process of having street art painted on it so I will have to go back to see it when it is finished.