Mollett Street in the Central City, Christchurch

Mollett Street in the Central City – Mollett’s Road and Mollett’s right-of-way, Named after Thomas Mollett (1823-1906). Mollett was a builder and surveyor. He had a builder’s yard, probably where this street was later formed. A “first class” building site on Mollett’s Road is advertised for sale in the Star in 1878. The work of forming Mollett’s right-of-way is mentioned in a report of a meeting of the Works Committee in the Star in 1881. Mollett’s Street appears in the Star in 1890 when a Mrs Cook of Mollett’s Street, off Colombo Street, advertises for a good general servant. By 1895 it is Mollett Street. Not listed in street directories until 1955. There must have been no residents until then. A reasonable amount of information from the library website. There were no birth or death notices in Papers Past for this street. In 1890 and 1895 there were two job ads for servants but these two ads were the only sign that anyone lived here. In 1900 there was a bedroom for let by Mrs Morrison at the back of Ballantynes factory. All the other mentions on Papers Past involved various businesses. In 1880 there were three building sections in Mollett’s paddock for sale. In 1896 and 1898 E Edmonds a wood turner was mentioned as being next to Brown’s Timber Yard. In 1911 there was a job ad for a wood turner for P G Clements at the back of Smith & Smiths Sawmill. By 1920 P G Clements woodturning business was owned by R McCree. The Eclipse Works was first mentioned 1913 and they made cardboard boxes but by 1923 they were known as Eclipse Fencing Co. Also in 1923 a row of shops were being built nearby. 1926 Smith and Smiths Sawmilling Company was in involuntary liquidation and the business premises up for sale. Another company mentioned frequently in 1920s and 1930s was R W England and Sons. In 1935 R W England’s business premises were for sale on behalf of receiver for debenture holders. I don’t think there was a buyer as in 1940 there was a fire on the vacant section owned by K E England. In 1943 there was property for sale because the Christchurch Wrecking Company was moving to other premises. The company A & T Burt were also on this street as they had a fire in 1936. I worked in the Central City until 2009 and I can’t remember what was on this street. This street doesn’t really exist any longer and it is part of the South Frame Laneways. There are two new lanes here Te Puhoe Lane and Sugarloaf Lane and there was an opening ceremony in June 2017 Description is that it will become an inner city oasis populated with seating and native grass. It is now 2021 and it doesn’t seem to be the bustling community that was promised. The day I walked here it was a busy Sunday in the city because of the marathon but the only person I saw was one lonely skateboarder.

When I discovered an article on Papers Past about An Eccentric Will dated 1927 I just had to research Thomas Mollett. Thomas Mollett died in 1906 and after that there were lots of entries about his estate. They were still trying to sort the estate out in 1927 which is why the article about it. He left a will leaving equal shares to his wife, daughter and son which sounds simple enough. His wife Lucretia actually died in 1877 and you would think that Thomas would have changed his will to reflect this. His daughter also Lucretia was married to E C D’Auvergne but she died in 1907 aged 47 but her children got her share. It was the clause involving Thomas’s son Thomas Alley Mollett that created the problem. The son was unable to inherit his share while the son’s wife was still living. Get the feeling that the father didn’t like his daughter-in-law. The son was living in England and I couldn’t find any record of Thomas Junior returning to New Zealand. The will stated that as long as the son’s wife was alive the son could only receive £150 a year from the estate and not the bulk of the estate. Thomas Mollett estate was worth £58,566 which would have been a huge amount those days. Both father and son were builders. It sounds like Thomas senior bought and sold land throughout the Christchurch area. He was also involved in the New Zealand Shipping Company. At least one building he was responsible for building was the Royal George Hotel but he never ran it as a publican. He was probably a property developer and landlord but electoral rolls have him as either gentleman or out of business. The phase out of business those days didn’t seem mean unemployed or bankrupt but sometimes it did. The various family trees on the ancestry website didn’t give me any information. The online calculator gives me the figure of £7,167,995.77 for £58,566 in today’s figures. If anyone can come up with a different amount please do as I could be wrong.

I have found out that Thomas Mollett probably remarried but I can’t find marriage details. Ann Mollett died in 1920 and is on electoral rolls at the same address as Thomas Mollett. She is buried at Bromley cemetery whereas Thomas and his first wife and his daughter are buried at Barbadoes Cemetery. Thomas the son married in 1886 in London by special license. The license had his age as 21 but he was probably 27. The license is probably misleading as it probably just means that he was of legal age to marry. The marriage certificate used the word allegation and I had to google this. It just means that they used special license rather than banns. His bride had her occupation down as clerk in Holy Orders which I found rather strange in 1886. If anyone knows the answer would be great as googling just tells me that it was used for curates