Sails Street in the suburb of Papanui, Christchurch

Sails Street formerly Sail’s Road. in Papanui – Named after James Sail (1819- 1908). Sail arrived in Canterbury on the Charlotte Jane in December 1850 and lived on Harewood Road, Papanui for 54 years. He helped form the Bridle Path and was for some time employed by the Hon. John Watts-Russell at Ilam. He also helped print the first issue of The Lyttelton Times. Sail’s Road appears on an 1880 map. Sails Street first appears in street directories in 1901 with a see ref. to Harewood Road. First appears as a separate listing in 1906. Referred to as Sail’s Road in an advertisement in the Star in 1909

A reasonable of information from the library website and the information about James Sail is almost the exact same information that was in his obituary.

Papers Past had both Sails Road and Sails Street right up to the 1960s. In 1895 and 1986 there were ads for building sites. It was mostly death notices and ads for both names. There must have been a milkman in the street between 1910 and 1920 as he was wanting to employ someone for milk delivery and no milking was required. By the 1950s the word street being used was starting to outnumber the word road being used. A few accidents over the years especially on the Harewood Rd corner. There were complaints about the state of the footpaths in 1924. In the 1940s and 1950s there was mention of best street garden competitions.

At the Harewood Rd end there is an entrance to the Golden Age Retirement Village and this village takes up one side of the street between Harewood Rd and Hoani Street. There is one house dating from 1905 but it has been altered so much that I couldn’t tell the age of it. A few from 1920s and then every decade until recently. Street view only shows up to 2015 and there is a lot of units built in 2022 and 2023. I had a nice chat with a resident on this street as he had an interesting bike in his driveway.