Peartree Lane in the suburb of Hillsborough, Christchurch

Peartree Lane in Hillsborough- Named after a very old pear tree growing in the grounds of Glenmore. Formed post-2000. Information supplied in 2008 by Kevin Blogg in an interview with Margaret Harper.

A small amount of information from the library website and I can’t add anything about the name. I was here on Saturday and because it was a private lane without a footpath I decided not to actually walk it. After checking the history of the area I changed my mind and went back to this area today. I am so pleased that I did as there is a house here dating from 1880. I ended up chatting with someone who lives on this street and the 1880s house used to be a homestay but since Covid the owner has a cookery school. The valuation website said that the house dates from 1880 but it is probably older than this and more likely to date from early 1870s.

The book Place Names of Banks Peninsula and the Port Hills by Gordon Ogilvie has a reasonable amount of information about the house and land. John Cordy had a house built here in about 1857 and in 1863 it was sold to Major Henry A Scott. It was Major Scott who named it Glenmore. The property was then sold to J B A Acland of Mt Peel and it was Acland who built the current house. At at least three owners before the Glenmore Brick Company purchased the property in 1901 and the manager of Glenmore Brick and Manufacturing Company lived in the house. The house had been a private nursing home for a few years before the Glenmore Brick Company purchased it. The Alderson family took over the Glenmore Brick Company in the mid 1940s. By 1996 the quarry was closed and the brickworks gone and the house was empty and it was decided to demolish the house to make way for a subdivision on the brickworks site. The house was saved and restored and developed into a quality tourist accommodation.

I took very little notice of the other houses on this street and they date from 1990s to 2000s. It looked like a lovely wee private lane but probably well beyond my budget. The woman that I chatted with said that I sound like a house stalker with my love of older houses. We also chatted about the nearby fire as she was a park ranger for the City Council. It is almost worth enrolling in the cookery school just to get a look inside the house but the concept of me doing a cookery class is just weird.