Naseby Street in the suburb of Merivale, Christchurch

Naseby Street in Merivale – Named after Naseby Church of England School, Northamptonshire. One of a number of streets in the area named after English public schools. “Cheap” building sections

in “Naseby Street in the Merivale Estate” are advertised for sale in the Star in 1905. First appears in street directories in 1906. [37 Naseby Street was the home of William Sefton Moorhouse (1825?-1881), a lawyer and politician, who became the provincial superintendent.]

A small amount of information from the library website and I don’t know why they have a question mark by his year of birth. Lots of information online for William Sefton Moorhouse.

A reasonable of information on Papers Past especially in the social pages. There were lots of ads in 1905 for sections on this street. Between 1910 and 1912 Santa Cruz Private Maternity Hospital also known as Nurse Cowper’s Home was on this street. It had moved to Carlton Rd by 1914. The Todhunter family was frequently mentioned and Mrs Todhunter often held garden fetes in her garden. She also seemed to have open house for visitors from the countryside. In 1909 Eva Veronica von Haast the only daughter of Sir Julius von Haast died at Mrs Todhunter’s house. Another family that was mentioned was the Ballins family. Bernard Ballins set up a cordial manufacturing business in Christchurch and it was called Ballins Brothers but was eventually called Ballins Brewery. Selwyn House School set up a boarding house on this street in 1935 but it quickly became too small and moved to Papanui Rd.

The houses here date from 1880 to 2023 and I couldn’t get a decent of the house from 1880 but it looked lovely. The house from 1905 is gorgeous. Many houses here were built between the 1950s and 1970s. There was a mixture of house styles with some lovely older houses and ugly modern houses. Not all of the modern houses were ugly. It looked like a pleasant street but another one that would be beyond my budget.