Eric Melrose Lane in the suburb of Halswell, Christchurch

Eric Melrose Lane in Halswell – too new to be on library website.

This street is named after one of the victims of the 1953 collision between two planes. The planes were part of a fly past that signalled the end of the celebration of the 1953 London to Christchurch Air Race. Eric Melrose was aged 21 and he was born in Dunedin. He was on his annual refresher training when he died.

Papers Past only had one article about the accident but there was a more recent article when the memorial plaque was unveiled in 2018.

There are only 15 houses here built in 2018 and there wasn’t any gardens. Just a tiny section of lawn in front of the houses and no fences. The bedrooms seemed to be very close to the footpath and I wouldn’t be comfortable with this.