Watsons Road in the suburb of Harewood, Christchurch

Watsons Rd in Harewood – formerly Watson’s Road. Named after George Watson (1837-1912). Watson, a farmer, is first listed in electoral rolls in the Styx catchment in 1878-1879 and is

described as having a leasehold on Rural Section 57 on the south side of Harewood Road. He later owned land on its north side. He is buried at St James Anglican Church in Harewood Road. Tenders were accepted by the Waimairi County Council for the “forming and shingling” of Watson’s Road in 1911. Formally named in 1917.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website. When looking at Papers Past there was at least three Watsons Roads in the Christchurch area. A few death notices and the earliest entry that I found was dated 1916. In 1957 and 1958 there were several articles about the zoning of the land. It was to be zoned rural because of the airport and any work subdivisions under 5 acres were prohibited. In 1965 a large block of land belonging to the late William Nunweek sold for a very good sum. In 1973 a Professor E R Hudson talked about living on a property on this road. It was apparently once a dairy farm and during World War Two they grew vegetables for the troops on the land.

In the 1970s it was mostly ads for two fruit farms. Coniston was at 51 Watsons Rd and the other one was Honeysuckle Fruit Farm.

George Watson died in 1912 and he lived on Harewood Rd until 5 years before his death. The road would have been formed through his property.

Being a rural road there wasn’t a footpath but the grass verge was fairly wide. There was a cluster of houses at the Waimakariri Rd end of the street and then it was large rural properties. Wai Ora Trust looked like a market gardening business and then there was a B&B. There was a gorgeous looking house on a huge section of land but technically it wasn’t on Watsons Rd as it had a Harewood Rd address. The property was called Omarino Wine Park and it was a wedding venue. There was an entrance on Watsons Rd. I couldn’t find out the age of the building but it looked 1900 to 1920ish but the Wine Park website said that they had a modern new venue built since the earthquakes.