Stanbury Ave in Somerfield – Formerly Droitwich Street. Named after the parliamentary electorate in Worcester long held by a member of the Lyttelton family. Re-named Stanbury Avenue. Named after Stanbury Manor, in the west riding of Yorkshire this street. Formerly Droitwich Street for a short time in 1958. Several streets in this area have names associated with the Lyttelton family because they were formed on Rural Section 76, 700 acres on the “Lower Lincoln Road, Heathcote Bridge” purchased by Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer (1798-1857) and Conway Lucas Rose (1817- 1910). Spencer’s interest in the land was passed on to his nephew, the Hon. George William Spencer Lyttelton (1847- 1913), the 4th son of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876). Re-named Stanbury Street the same year. The forebears of Lynwood Hollings (1885-1977) had once lived at Stanbury Manor. He claimed to be the prime mover in arranging the subdivision of this street. Local residents disliked the foreign name which was difficult to pronounce.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Lynwood Hollings forebears possibly lived on the estate of Stanbury Manor in Yorkshire but they didn’t own it. His family were agricultural labourers on the estate.
There was a reasonable amount of information on Papers Past and all entries for Droitwich St were in 1958. In July of that year the new street in the government subdivision was given the name of Droitwich and the reason for the name was that it was connected to the Lyttelton family. In October one of the members of the group objecting to the street name visited the City Council Offices where he was informed that not only was it an English name but there was the Lyttelton family connection and that many of the streets in the area had a Lyttelton family connection. The man who was representing the residents of Somerfield was apparently taken aback by learning that it was an English name. The residents group were told that unless they could come up with some constructive suggestions that the Droitwich name stays. Note using the name Hollings had already been rejected. A few days later Mr L Hollings came up with the name Stanbury claiming that Stanbury Manor was his ancestral home. He also claimed to have been the prime mover in arranging the subdivision. There was a note that Mr Hollings canvassed the owners of the waste land with the idea of the subdivision. Mr Hollings apparently owned the largest block of land out of the 24 owners of the land. The Ministry of Works developed the land under the title of Hollings and others. Note Lynwood Hollings was very vocal in letters to the editor or representing various groups. He formed his own political party in 1938 calling it the People’s Party. He was a builder at one stage plus owned several houses that he rented out. Sometimes he had disputes with his tenants. In 1952 he was granted a wine sellers licence and had a store on Sparkes Rd in Halswell.
By November of 1958 there were 62 sections available. This was also a state house development and developing state houses here was mentioned as early as 1937. Papers Past mostly had death notices plus entries for the best street and garden competitions. There were several houses for sale in 1968 and 1969 and it looks like the street was developed in stages. There was a hit and run incident in 1971 where the young girl hit eventually died.
This is a pleasant tree lined street with some nice gardens. I couldn’t find out if there were still state houses on the street. There was one house that looked a bit run down and was possibly empty. I had a nice chat with the young woman painting her fence with the help of her young daughter. There is an entrance to the Somerfield Rest Home on this street but the rest home is officially on Barrington St.
The houses here were all built between the 1950s and 1990s and I liked the one with the tree hut.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 