Holcombe Place in the suburb of Somerfield, Christchurch

Holcombe Place in Somerfield – formerly Halcombe Place. Halcombe Place first appears in street directories in 1947. Becomes Holcombe Place in 1948.

A tiny amount of information from the library website. I couldn’t find anything on Papers Past about the naming of the street. Both spellings of the name were used in ads and articles from 1947 to 1975. Mostly ads, death notices and engagement notices. In 1975 there was an incident that required the armed offenders squad.

There is a Holcombe in the UK and I think that I have driven past it as it is in an area that I frequently visited. There is a vague Robert Falcon Scott connection to this town as his parents ran a brewery here at one stage. It is also possible that the street was named after a government official as it was a state house development in the 1940s and many of these developments were named after government officials.

Most of the houses in this street were built in the 1940s and many are still state houses. Several have been demolished and as the original houses were on large sections they will eventually be replaced with multi dwelling units if they follow the pattern of what is happening in other areas. I recently found a link that gives me the information about how many state houses are on a street. Yes I know that state house is no longer the official term for these houses. Note I am old enough to remember state house tenants coming into the Post Office with their rent book to pay their rent.