Foundry Drive in the suburb of Hillsborough, Christchurch

Foundry Drive in Hillsborough and nothing on library website. Nothing on the council website about the naming of this street. Luckily a bit of local knowledge helped me here and the street is named after Andersons Foundry that used to be at 38 Curries Rd. The business closed in the late 1980s and their equipment was being sold off in 1989. I don’t have a date for when the street was developed but it was possibly in the 1990s. This is an industrial area and I always find that it is best to walk such streets on a Sunday. John Anderson who founded the original foundry is buried in the Addington cemetery. His grave did survive the earthquakes but sadly didn’t survive teenage vandals.

Join the Conversation

  1. rstuartnicholson0698's avatar
  2. lytteltonwitch's avatar

3 Comments

  1. I find it difficult to Reply on your interesting website, hence my email.

    38 Curries Rd Not just a foundry but all of Andersons Ltd engineering works moved there 1920. https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-records/andersons/ Foundries did everything in those days, fitting, turning, welding, moulding, small ships, bridges, and other heavy engineering.

    Anchor Foundry in Nelson was another like it (where my dad’s mother’s father worked).

    My dad’s brother did his apprenticeship at Andersons ca 1930-1934 (including the building of the New River gold dredge for the Westland – he then went to sea and ended up with Chief Marine Engineer qualifications and joining the war effort in the REA in London ca 1939).

    Interestingly, I knew two professional engineers named CURRIE, Robin and Chris, brothers. Why was the street called Curries Road, I wonder. Was their dad linked to it? Another story for you!

    Cheers

    Stuart

    On Sun, 12 Jan 2025 at 16:31, Lytteltonwitch’s Walking the streets of

    Like

    1. I believe that my ex-husband worked at Andersons before I met him. I am about to research Curries Rd as I also walked it today – Lesley

      On Sun, 12 Jan 2025 at 17:36, Lytteltonwitch’s Walking the streets of

      Like

Leave a comment

Leave a reply to rstuartnicholson0698 Cancel reply