Ruston Lane in the suburb of Halswell, Christchurch

Ruston Lane in Halswell- too new for library website. Another street that I wasn’t actually able to walk as they are still building houses here and most of the street was blocked off. This tiny street runs off Muirhill St. I found information on the council website which said that the street is named after a rock face diesel shovel. My gut feeling was that Ruston had to be a person’s name so I went googling. These machines when invented were called crane navvy which is logical. The oldest surviving crane navvy is the Ruston Proctor Steam Navvy No 306 and is being restored at Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum in Cumbia. Just added another place to my travel list. It was originally used at the chalk pit in Arlesey in Bedfordshire. Joseph Ruston was from Ely and I have a friend who will be interested in this man’s family tree.