York Street in the suburb of Waltham, Christchurch

York Street – Formerly Balls Road. Named after Robert Ball (1822?-1890).Ball, his wife Jane (1825- 1887) and son Robert (b. 1854?) arrived in Lyttelton on the Mystery in 1859. Ball worked as a blacksmith and later established a coach service and blacksmith’s shop in Balls Road. He ran a coach to Opawa in January 1880, the first American coach imported into Canterbury. Balls Road was developed in 1874 through land formerly owned by Joshua Strange Williams (1837-1915). First mentioned in the Star in 1894 when a property is advertised for sale there. Re-named York Street by 1888. An Edward Ball is listed in street directories as then living in the street. Both street names were used concurrently for a time. Information supplied in 2007 by Gary Dillon of Wanaka, a descendant of Robert Ball, in an interview with Margaret Harper.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website but this information doesn’t match up with early maps. The maps show York St and Balls Road as two separate streets. York St went from the river to Opawa Rd and Ball’s Road sometimes known as Ball’s Lane went from Opawa Rd to Raycroft St. In other words Opawa Rd separated the two streets.

In Papers Past as York St between 1885 and 1890 it was ads for houses and section. From 1910 onwards it was mostly death notices. In the 1880s and1890s Mr Lister of York St was a very busy man as he had a Fruit Garden and Vineries. He also had a Pickle Factory plus a Mineral Water Factory. In 1896 there were obstacles placed in the way of acquiring land to join Upper and Lower York Streets. The council will take the required land under the Land and Public Works Act 1894. This land sounded like it was at the Hassal’s Lane corner. Ball’s Rd possibly was part of York St briefly but it eventually became part of Raycroft St. This was very confusing but Opawa Rd definitely separated the two streets and all the maps from 1912 to 1941 show them as separate streets. The maps for 1950 and 1958 show Ball’s Rd as Raycroft St.

A large number of older houses here dating from 1880 to 1920 and many are in good condition. They had well established gardens and trees and I found it impossible to get photos. A few houses from later decades but many of the older houses are being demolished and several units being built on the sections. Some of the modern units I quite like but the developer here is the only developer who I like. They don’t do toilet block style of housing. Near Hassels Lane there is a big section of land which used to belong to a school and there is possibly a community group here. The school moved to Halswell. I mostly liked this street and I hope that the developer doesn’t ruin it. I have a vague memory of this street from the 1970s and I think that a boy that I went out with briefly lived here. The only reason that I remember is that his surname was York same as the street. He can’t have been that memorable if the only thing that I remember about him is his surname.