Rossmore Tce in Cashmere – Named after the Rossmore family. The Rossmores were aristocrats with connections to the Westenra family. Captain Richard Westenra (1794- 1880) was a “grandson of a former Lord Rossmore”. Frederick Herbert Wilson (1832-1902) and Frances Sarah Wilson, née Westenra, (1831-1903) named their eldest son Rossmore Cracroft Wilson (1863-1942). First mentioned in The Press in 1912. First appears in street directories in 1921.
A reasonable of information from the library website and that is a seriously weird description of Lord Rossmore. Using the words former Lord Rossmore is strange. Captain Richard Westenra father was the third Baron Rossmore and his grandfather was the second Baron Rossmore. Captain Richard Westenra’s mother was Baron Rossmore’s second wife. The first Baron Rossmore didn’t have any children and the title went to a nephew.
Papers Past had lots of entries especially in what was called Social Notes. A family with the surname Maling is frequently mentioned. In 1922 there is mention of the need for a footpath from Rossmore Tce to the Consumption sanatorium and in 1926 there was mention that the footpath from Rossmore Tce to Sanatorium Hill is to be asphalted. The year 1933 had several entries as the septic tank and old trees at the corner of Cashmere Rd and Rossmore Tce were being removed so that a plantation can be planted.
The same year there was a very sad story about a young boy who fell into a quarry. This happened in July of that year and it was said that he fell 50 feet over a bank into the quarry. He broke his thigh and right arm plus had internal injuries. The note from the hospital said that he was seriously hurt but improving. The quarry was on private land and fenced off. The broken thigh and leg didn’t heal properly so they operated on him in the September but he died after the operation.
The year 1946 was another busy year as a man was charged with running a common gaming house on the street. This was the same year that a new convent was opened on the street. The description is that it was a new juniorate of the sisters of the missions and first of its kind in the South Island. Reading further articles it sounds like it was a place where they trained novices to be fully fledged nuns.
There were sections for sale in 1969 and 1971 and I was going to look up Mr E Maling to see when he died as the Maling family seemed to be the main householder on the street.
In 1974 two young men wanted to establish a grass ski run on this street but they withdrew their application because of the number of objections. They possibly continued doing this on an informal basis as there is a photo dated 1975 of a young man grass skiing. The footwear looked like modified roller skates. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s we had toboggans that we used in the paddock next to our house in Lyttelton. The sheep stayed out of our way.
I walked this last night and I ended up having a lovely chat with a local. Part of the old convent fell down in the September earthquake and the rest fell in the February earthquakes. She said that it came down with a lot of noise. She also said that it was rumoured that naughty nuns who had been impregnated by priests were sent to this convent. I think that the church this owns this property. In this flat section of the street there were several houses built in the 1920s but they were on the high side of the street up long driveways. The glimpse that I managed to get showed gorgeous wooden villas. Most of the houses here are on only one side of the street because of the long drop on the other side of the street. On the lower part near Centaurus RD is the only part where houses are on both sides. At the top of the street there are huge modern houses which are unbelievable. Anyone got a spare couple of million to give me. At the top there looks like there is a walkway that leads to Whareora Tce but I didn’t attempt it as I had done of a lot of walking on steep roads and was getting tired.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 