Torlesse Street in the suburb of Avonside, Christchurch

Torlesse Street in Avonside – Named after the Priscilla Catherine Torlesse (1824?-1896) was a niece of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and sister of the Rev. Henry Torlesse and Charles Obins Torlesse. She lived at 238 Gloucester Street and is buried at Linwood Cemetery. Charles Obins Torlesse (1825-1866) was a surveyor and a nephew of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. He arrived in Canterbury in 1841 and established himself at Fernside, Rangiora. He died in England. Frances Torlesse (1825- 1925) worked with Anglican social welfare groups. In 1893 she was honorary superintendent of the Home of Refuge, Linwood. She also lived at 238 Gloucester Street but died in England. The Rev. Henry Torlesse (1832-1870) was a vicar of Banks Peninsula. In a government housing subdivision. The name was submitted by the Director of Housing Construction, Mr A. Tyndall. Named in 1938. First appears in street directories in 1939. Information supplied in 2006 by Richard Greenaway.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and Richard Greenaway is a good researcher. Plenty of information online about the Torlesse family.

The earliest mention on Papers Past was in 1938 when names were chosen for the streets in the Government Housing Block which was also called Armstrongs Block. Lots of death notices over the years plus they seemed to be an accident prone lot on this street.

In February 1948 an accident on the South Island Main Trunk line was mentioned as three people from this street were injured and one person died. I did google New Zealand train crashes and this crash happened in Seddon where the train driver misjudged the speed to go around a curve. He was inexperienced on this route and he was found not guilty of manslaughter. In 1967 there were several mentions of Torlesse Street cottages to be built for pensioners. These cottages ended up with their own street name of Mabel Howard Place.

I walked this street on Sunday as I was geocaching in the little park that runs off this street. It is a tree lined street that should be a pleasant street. Most houses here were built in the 1930s and 1940s with some from 2022. Looks like at least half of the houses are still social housing including the new ones built in 2022. It was fairly obvious which houses are now privately owned. Not sure about the house that looks like it houses a hoarder. The street runs from Kerrs Road to the river.