Larsens Rd in Halswell – formerly School Road and Collins Road. Mrs Larsen was a daughter of Mr and Mrs Collins. Mr Collins worked at the Halswell Quarry.
A tiny amount of information from the library website. Papers Past had entries in 1957 about the name change from Collins Rd to Larsens Rd. Other entries were mostly in the 1970s with ads for the sale of new houses. I couldn’t find entries for Collins St in Halswell but Collins St was a very common name. There were streets of the same name in Lincoln, Springston and Rakaia. There was already another street in Halswell called School Rd that has existed since 1880s. I tried to find older maps of the area but had no luck.
I then spend ages looking for the Larsen and Collins family. The various family trees on ancestry website were of limited help. I found three names for Larsen. His grave and electoral rolls had him as Harry Larsen. Some of the family trees had him as Henry Larsen but his widow’s death notice had him as Harold Larsen. He was only 43 when he died in November 1918 and he is buried in Addington cemetery. He probably died from influenza. He married Mary Alice Collins in 1911. Sadly she had a brother die from influenza in the same year.
There is an entrance to Halswell school at the Halswell Rd end of the street and the entrance has memorial gates. None of the houses stood out for me and most were built in 1970s with a few built in 1960s. The oldest house is from 1940s.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 