Rowallan Lane in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Rowallan Lane in Spreydon – First appears in street directories in 1957. A tiny amount of information from the library website and they also have this street as Rowallan Ave. I was slightly confused as this lane runs off Andrews Crescent and I have already walked Andrews Crescent so why hadn’t I already walked it. When I got there I realised that I had walked it but not realised that it was a street. There are no houses here and no evidence of any houses but suspect there were houses at one stage. I did a some googling but couldn’t come up with anything regarding this street. This street runs through Jerrold Reserve and it is highly likely that any houses here would have been demolished when the motorway was built. It is also possible that this street was much bigger and originally called an Avenue but I couldn’t find the information with a quick google. I also couldn’t find a reason for the name but have three theories. One theory is that it is named after Lord Rowallan who toured New Zealand in 1949 when he was the Empire Chief Scout. Second theory is that there is a connection to the Deans family as they used the name Rowallan for a property that was owned by Douglas Deans and this property was practically next door to Homebush. Trouble was that I could find no evidence of the Deans family having any connection to Addington / Spreydon. I searched Papers Past and ancestry website. My third theory is that it is just a random Scottish name used as many of the streets in this area are named after places in Scotland. Rowallan is in Ayrshire and I got seriously sidetracked reading about Rowallan Castle. Lord Rowallan died at Rowallan Castle and his surname was Corbett. The castle was returned to the Campbell family in 1989. The 4th Lord Rowallan was declared bankrupt in 1993 and he actually sold the castle in 1989. He must have sold a lot of other things as I saw an auction entry for his grandfather’s war medals. Interesting family as the 3rd Lord Rowallan was disowned by his father and this was possibly because he had married a transgender woman. The marriage didn’t last.