Thorrington Road in Cashmere – Underhill Road/Street was incorporated into Thorrington Road.Named after Thorrington, a house built on the banks of the Heathcote River, near the Cashmere Hills.Thorrington was the home of an estate agent, Charles Clark (1824-1906), who arrived in Christchurch in 1856. He was living at Thorrington at the time of his marriage in 1865. His son, Leonard Ernest Clark (1871-1932), built nearby Wairoa homestead about 1905 and his grandson Ernle was a celebrated aviator who lived at Thorrington for about 25 years. At one time it was said to have the best private garden in Christchurch and the Clarks hosted large garden parties here. First mentioned in The Press in 1904 when some of the land surrounding Thorrington was subdivided into 62 sections and sold. First appears in street directories in 1917.The section of Thorrington Road running from Cashmere Road to just past Wherstead Street was formerly named Underhill Road/Street. Mentioned in The Press in 1904. Shown on maps 1912-1950.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Papers Past didn’t have anything for Underhill Street and for Underhill Road there were a few death notices and sections for sale in 1904 and 1938. A possible reason the the Underhill name is that it was so close to the hill. Underhill is a surname but as this area seems to have part of the Thorrington Estate it is unlikely that it was named after a person.
Couldn’t find a mention of Underhill being changed to Thorrington. Sections were available in 1904 and 1907 and again in 1930s. Sections being available seem to match up with a Clark death. There was a death notice for Walter Scarff in 1944 as he lived on this street and Scarff Place is named after him. There was a dog dosing strip here in 1964 and there is always complaints about barking dogs. Is anyone old enough to remember dog dosing strips. When I was growing up we had one next to us in Lyttelton. I vaguely recall family getting upset one time because of the noise. The noise distressed my mother who was seriously ill.
In1969 the council stated very clearly that they had no intention of altering the purpose of the reserve or transferring it to provide a road. This was in response to the solicitors of RE and EL Morris who were planning on subdividing their land. The Christchurch Bible School was mentioned in 1972 and it gave a full description of their property.
Most houses on this street were built in the 1970s and 1980s but there are still a couple from 1910. There are some lovely older houses here but a couple of the modern ones are really ugly and look out of place. There is a playground next to the entrance to Ernle Clark Reserve. There also seems to be an empty section that is fenced off and there is possibly a dispute over the status of this land. There is a section of land near Ernle Clark Reserve where a developer wants to cut down native trees but there is a caveat on the land but I don’t know if it this fenced off section.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 