Cave Terrace in the suburb of Redcliffs, Christchurch

Cave Terrace in Redcliffs – Named after the caves still seen in the cliff face. The first homes in Redcliffs were built at the beginning of the 20th century. First mentioned in The Press in 1906. First appears in street directories with residents listed in 1936. Before this it is listed with a see ref. to Moncks Spur.

A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. The first entry on Papers Past was in April 1906 and it was an ad for the sale of sections. Between 1906 and 1913 there were lots of ads for sections and all mentioned great views. From 1917 onwards the ads were for houses. In 1909 the road had been metalled and concrete channels formed. In 1908 stormwater drains were mentioned and they were still discussing them in 1925. There was the usual birth and death notices. In 1911 the residents requested that the council lay water on for them but the council deferred this but they eventually got water. From 1913 through to 1940 widening the road was frequently discussed. In 1913 Mr E W Pidgeon offered a strip of land free of cost to widen the turn by the Spur. They were still discussing the dangerous turn at Pidgeon’s corner. A Mr Smith also offered land for road widening and in 1933 the Kennett estate offered land for the same purpose. Most of the discussion re road widening was for the very sharp bend at the corner by Moncks Spur Road. The corner of Cave Terrace with the Main Road was also discussed.

In July 1918 after heavy rain plus a snow fall there was a slip that took away land in front of the house that used to belong to Nurse Maude but is now owned by Mr Stott.

There must have been a rifle range nearby as in the late 1920s there were complaints about shots coming too close to the houses. Going by the description of the rifle range it sounded like it was in Barnett Park. In the late 1950s there were a few entries about garden competitions. In the 1970s there were letters to the editor complaining about the dangerous bends on the road. In 1992 the hairpin bend on the corner of Cave Terrace and Moncks Spur Road was upgraded. The sewers were renewed in 1988. There were slips on the road in 1992 after storms. Cave Terrace was mentioned in connection with accidents involving trucks but the accidents actually happened on Moncks Spur Road. The trucks went over the bank on Moncks Spur Road near the corner with Cave Terrace.

The valuation website that I use said that there are 12 houses here and there was from 1910 and another from 1920. Sadly these two houses have been demolished which is a pity as going by street view they looked like lovely wooden villas. I had a good look at street view and it looks like four houses have been demolished. They were still standing in 2022. There is a lovely Art Deco house built in 1930 on this street. There was another fairly new house that looked rather boring compared to the house that it had replaced.

I was geocaching in the area today and decided to walk a street. I was going to walk more streets but just walked this one. I shouldn’t be walking more streets as I do have a backlog of streets to research and write. I had parked in Barnett Park and I looked at this street from the Main Road and decided not to walk up the street as I felt that it would be too dangerous. Instead I walked up the steps above the caves that are on the Main Road at the bottom of this street. These steps took me to Moncks Spur Road and I walked along Moncks Spur Road until I got to Cave Terrace. There was a footpath here and the lovely Art Deco house is near the corner. Then there is a huge empty section and you can still see the driveways plus steps that would have led to the houses. When I got to the end of the footpath I decided that it would be reasonably safe to walk down the road as long as I was careful. Not many cars on the road thank goodness. I did take a couple of screenshots from street view of two of demolished houses.