Tankerville Road in the suburb of Hoon Hay, Christchurch

Tankerville Road in Hoon Hay – First mentioned in The Press in 1884 in a report of a meeting of the Spreydon Road Board. Prior to the developing and naming of the road there was an area called Tankerville. First appears in street directories in 1903.A small amount of information from the library website. The name Tankerville came from Lady Olivia Bernard Sparrow whose daughter married Earl of Tankerville. Lady Sparrow owned the land along with her brother. It was also known as Sparrow Farm. In 1882 the land was subdivided and sold. Several entries in Papers Past and drainage issues were mentioned in 1884. A year earlier in 1883 discussion about the forming of roads in Tankerville. Some of the residents in Tankerville were John Mather, James Torrens and F H Steel. In 1909 David Steel one of the founders of Steel Brother died and he lived at 9 Tankerville Rd. In the early 1900s there were many complaints about cattle grazing on the road. In the late 1800s and early 1900s there were only about 12 to 13 houses on this street. The 1950s was a busy time for the street as in 1958 there was mention of a Halswell block of land being taken by Christchurch city and in 1959 discussion about subdividing the land Also approval for Hillmorton High School to be built. It was originally going to be called Hoon Hay High School. Also the spelling of Hillmorton was Hillmorten in most reports. By 1960 the school was being built. In 1959 the newly formed Hoon Hay Club acquired land to build club rooms on. Hillmorton High School is still on Tankerville Road and seems much bigger than when my sons went to the school. The subdivision in 1950s explains why so many of the houses here were built between 1950 and 1970 with a few built in 1940s. The oldest house is dated from 1890 but it isn’t very impressive. There are some lovely houses from 1910 and 1915. There is an early learning centre and the Hoon Hay Club is no longer operating. In my banking days we often used to drink at the Hoon Hay Club but sadly the finances of the club were mismanaged and it eventually closed. The building is still there and part of the building is owned by a trust for disabled children and is called the Chris Ruth Centre. Chris Ruth was a handicapped boy who died young and his father is a local judge. I am related to this family and we all grew up in Lyttelton. The other part of the original Hoon Hay Club building is leased by a church called Light of All Nations and this church was founded only a few years ago. The neighbours of this church object to it being there because of noise issues. There have been several noise complaints resulting in the police being called out. The church plays loud music and uses loud speakers for sermons often until 2am or even later. The number of articles in the media about issues in this street totally puts me the idea of living here. I remember how terrible parking was on this street during term time and I don’t imagine that has changed. It was OK yesterday as it is school holidays and I was in the area for geocaching.