Stapletons Road in the suburb of Richmond, Christchurch

Stapletons Road in Richmond – Named after Thomas Stapleton (1826-1895). Stapleton, a gentleman, was a sawyer and “poultry enthusiast”. He died at his home in Stapletons Road. First appears in street directories in 1887.

A small amount of information from the library website. Any street name with an s on the end usually means it was named after a person. Eventually the apostrophe stops being used. Thomas Stapleton lived on North Stanmore Rd and his address eventually became Stapleton Road. The church owned a huge amount of land in this area and I couldn’t tell from maps where the boundary was between his property and church property. Thomas Stapleton had freehold land and at least one leasehold property so it is possible that he leased this property from the church. He resigned as treasurer of the Poultry Society in 1889 and wasn’t mentioned but I suspect that it would have been for health reason. His death notice in 1895 mentioned that he died aged 69 from a long and painful illness. No scandals or bankruptcy issues for Thomas Stapleton which makes a change for someone who has a street named after them in Christchurch.

There was a large amount of information on Papers Past and the earliest entries I found was in 1879 which is a bit earlier than what the library claims. The residents requested that the bridge over Dudley Creek be wider. The Road Board had ads calling for tenders for shingling the road plus either altering the existing bridge or building a new one. In 1882 the bridge was closed for repairs. Bridges feature a lot on this street and in 1885 Mr T Codling was asking for a bridge over Dudley Creek. In 1886 the Road Board was calling for tenders for building a bridge over Dudley Creek. I suspect that this was a bridge that was at the Shirley Road end of the street. In 1899 the bridge on Shirley Road at the corner of Stapleton Road was closed for repairs. In the same year a resident was requesting a culvert because of drainage issues. The Drainage Board basically said not their problem.

Looks like there was a least one pig farm on this road plus two or three dairy farms. I know that there was a butcher on the street as in 1882 he requested that a Mr M’Connell remove his filly from his paddocks or he will sell it. A few complaints about the state of the road over the years. In 1912 the church had a big subdivision in this area. In 1925 sewers were laid. In 1912 when the church land was sold off a Mr Daniel Neil bought up a big block of land and in 1925 he subdivided the land and sold off the sections. In 1926 relief workers were sent to this street to fell trees. Relief workers were frequently mentioned in Christchurch in the 1920s. In 1926 the street was described as a narrow winding lane and tenders were called for widening the street. In 1928 the residents of this street and surrounding streets were very upset to be included in the Kaiapoi electorate. In 1927 the sewer was being laid to the new pumping station. A letter to the editor in 1951 was from a man complaining about noise from backyard businesses and he wanted them to be moved. A hand grenade with the pin still in it was found in Dudley Creek in 1961. After this it was mostly death especially because of an old age care home on this street. I am going to do a separate write for that property. I was surprised to see a name that I knew in the death notices and it was in 1979 for Flora Sneddon a Lyttelton person.

A large number of houses on this street are from the 1920s with two houses dating from 1910. One of the houses from 1910 is in a very sad condition and I did take photos of it. I also managed to get a photo of a house from 1915 and it is lovely. The houses cover most decades. I started my walk at Shirley Rd and these days you can’t tell but there used to be a bridge here as it goes over a drain or creek. These days it is a large culvert. Dudley Creek follows most of the road until near Dudley Street. Houses on that side of the street have bridges over the creek. Two of the streets that run off Stapleton Road only have footbridges now as it was considered too expensive to repair the road bridges. My map only shows Dudley Creek going along this road from Julius Terrace to just before Dudley Street but there is definitely a creek going from Shirley Road to Julius Terrace. The pumping station that was built in 1927 is still on the street and I did take a photo of it. There are some lovely houses on this street. The street ends at North Avon Road.