Sandy Avenue in the suburb of New Brighton, Christchurch

Sandy Ave in New Brighton- Named after a very high sand ridge that had to be removed before development could proceed. Named by Mary Catherine Ryan (1892-1978), wife of William Nicholas Ryan (1885-1950), a contractor. First appears in street directories in 1964.Information supplied in 2008 by the Ryans’ son, Jack Ryan, in a letter to Margaret Harper. A small amount of information from the library website. There are only three houses left on this street and they are near Bower Ave end of the street. Part of one side of the street has been red zoned. On the other side is a huge big empty section that looks like it is being developed. There used to be a school called Freeville School on the area that is being developed. Found a couple of news articles about the school dated 2013. The school was to be closed and merged with two other schools. There were protests from the parents but the land was sold in 2018. I found a letter from the grandson of William Ryan dated April 2021. He was writing requesting more information about the sale of the land and he posted the letter online as he never received a reply from the government dept. Information in the letter is about the fact that the land was owned by his grandfather William Ryan and that acquired by the government under the Public Works Act of 1928 for the use of a school. The family were given notification in the late 1940s but was actually sold to the Crown in 1956. The grandson went on to claim that there was an agreement that if the Crown no longer required the land that the Ryan family had the right to buy the land back. His complaint is that this land was sold to Ngai Tahu in August 2018 without the Ryan family being informed or offered the option to buy back the land. I believe that the land will be subdivided into 34 sections and this was mentioned in an article about various school properties being sold off. The same article mentioned that the land that school was situated on as being mostly red zone land so I am not sure how houses could be built on the land. The school gates are still there.