Halton Street in the suburb of Strowan, Christchurch

Halton St in Strowan – formerly Halton Road Named after Halton, a house on Norman’s Road Halton was named after Lady Halton, Salop, England, the estate of Joseph Ick, father of Charles Thomas Ick (1827-1885). Ick, an auctioneer, was the mayor of Christchurch in 1879 and 1880. From 1870 he lived on Papanui Road. Halton Road is first mentioned in The Press in 1886. Arthur Taylor, a tea expert, is living at Halton in 1890, the year Halton Road first appears in street directories. Not made a public road until after 1894. Halton in Halton Road is mentioned in the Star in 1896. Becomes Halton Street in 1920. Extended through to St Andrews Terrace in 1927. A Papanui war memorial street. Information about the connection with Lady Halton researched in 2002 by Ben France-Hudson. A reasonable amount of information from the library website and I am now totally braindead from trying to find out information about the people named in the information. The death notice for Charles Thomas Ick mentions Lady Halton, Salop. Salop is an old name for Shropshire. I actually couldn’t get the Ick family living in the hamlet (village) of Lady Halton. The census had them in a place called Stoke St Milborough. I also couldn’t find Charles Ick living in Papanui and found addresses of Hereford St and Colombo St for him. I also couldn’t find information about Arthur Taylor except for a gardener. A reasonable amount of information on Papers Past but mostly birth and death notices. In 1894 the owners were informed that once they had paid two thirds of the cost the road board would undertake the work to form the road. At this stage the road only went from Papanui Rd to Watford St. In the same year there were sections for sale for £50. In 1899 and 1900 there were complaints about drainage from one person. In 1899 Joseph Palmer offered to pay half the cost of channelling in the street to fix the drainage issues. In 1900 the chairman of the Road Board received a deed from Mr Taylor conveying to the Queen a strip of land giving access to the end of Halton Rd and the road is now open for traffic. In 1923 there was discussion about extension of Halton Rd from Watford St to St Andrews Tce ( now Hartley Ave) and in 1927 land was purchased from L B Hart for this purpose. In 1938 land was purchased for state housing. In 1946 there was a letter to the editor with the writer wanting the street to have two names. This makes sense as it is confusing the way the street splits into two. The original part of the street runs from Papanui Rd to Watford St and the house called Halton would have been near the Papanui Rd end of the street. You then have to walk down Watford St to find the rest of the street which runs from Watford St to Hartley Ave and this is the extension that was created in 1929. I had to doublecheck google maps when walking this street. The oldest house on the street is from 1905 and then most decades are covered with most houses built in 1930s and 1940s. I walked this street last week and catching up on my street project today as it isn’t a great day today for walking. Many of the older houses are lovely and I didn’t pick this street for having state houses on it when I was walking it. The modern houses look out of place on this street. I also managed to miss the War Memorial plaque on the lamp post as this is one of the Papanui War Memorial Streets. I went back to google maps and the plaque is on the corner of Watford St and Halton St and I would have expected it to be at the corner of Halton St and Papanui Rd. There is a half demolished house on the corner of Halton St and Hartley Ave which interested me. I found an old street view of it. I ended up talking to the local postie and she agreed that the way it is being demolished is different as much of it is looking like it is being preserved.