Marsden Street in the Heathcote Valley, Christchurch

Marsden St – Formerly Vogel Street. Probably named after Sir Julius Vogel (1835-1899). Re-named Marsden Street. Probably named after Joseph Marsden (1832- 1888) Vogel was the Prime Minister of New Zealand 1873-1875 and 1876. Named by Alfred Lee Smith (1838-1917) who operated a malthouse on the site. In 1873 Smith developed three streets in the Heathcote Valley, naming them Lee Street, Smith Street and Vogel Street. Vogel Street was renamed Marsden Street in 1933 by the Public

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Papers Past had the information that the street’s name was changed to avoid duplication. Past Papers also had interesting information about Joseph Marsden. Marsden owned the Heathcote Valley Hotel which is now the Valley Inn. The original Valley Inn was demolished after the earthquakes and the current one is a new building. I have only visited the new Valley Inn once but in my younger days I frequently visited the old one as I was living in Lyttelton those days. Joseph Marsden accidentally drowned in Petone in 1888. His body was found at Days Bay and there was comment about Joseph having gone missing. I didn’t find an inquest. He was frequently charged for serving people who were not bona fide travellers. Sounds like he was an interesting person. Because the Valley Inn is here within the triangle of Marsden St and Favell St it would have been a good reason to rename the street with his name,
Another street with a mixture of new and old houses and there are several flats which look a bit like pensioner cottages. I vaguely know someone who lives in one of these cottages. My photo of the Valley Inn would have been suitable for either Favell St or Marsden St but decided that because of the history will use it here.

Found the inquest and I had missed it because it was obviously held in Wellington and on my previous search I had limited my search to local papers, Joseph Marsden had been staying in Petone with his son for health reasons. He had been in Petone for three months. Joseph was described as an elderly man but he was only 55 years old when he died. He was subject to epileptic fits and was partially paralysed. His son said that Joseph had been free from fits while staying with him.Verdict was accidental death by drowning. His legs had fishing line twisted around his legs. Also the reason he was charged with serving people who weren’t bona fide travellers was that he served people on Sundays.