Author Archives: lytteltonwitch

Springfield Road in St Albans – Named after the Springfield Estate in Papanui Road. James Wyatt of Bangor, Wales was granted Rural Section 136, 100 acres in Papanui Road and was presumably an absentee landowner. His son, Benjamin, arrived on the Cressy in 1850, aged 22 years. He is described in the Lyttelton Times in …

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Rutland Street in St Albans – Formerly Chinaman’s Road. Re-named Churchill Street. Named after the Most Rev. Churchill Julius (1847-1938). Also formerly Church Road. Named because the Anglican diocese owned land in this area. Re-named Rutland Street. Named after John Rutland (1825-1897) Chinaman’s Lane was completed in 1889 and the street naming committee was asked …

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Homersham Place in Burnside – First appears in street directories in 1993. Named after Brian Homersham (1915‐1983) and Contance Homersham née Pinwill (1918‐2016) founders of B. R. Homersham Ltd. Additional information In 1975 the Hamershams purchased two hectares of land at 155 Roydvale Avenue to construct a purpose built factory for the business. The company, …

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Azara Way in Wigram and too new for the library website. I also couldn’t find it on the council website. The street is probably named after the azara plant / tree. Nothing stood out for me on this street and I didn’t take any photos. They were ordinary looking modern houses with mostly lawns but …

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Brusio Drive in Wigram and nothing on the library website. Information from the council website – Brusio is a small village in the Swiss Alps in the canton of Graubunden. It is 25 kilometres from the Italian border and the language spoken is Italian or Romanish. The Dellaca family’s ancestors came from this village. I …

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Romanee Lane in Wigram – Named after a person connected to the Mauger family. The Maugers have been longstanding contractors and developers throughout Canterbury. A small amount of information from the new library website. This surprised me as none of the other streets in the area are on the library website and they are older …

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William Dawson Crescent in Wigram and too new for library website. Council website didn’t give a reason for the street name. Between Papers Past and Ancestry website I found a William Henry Dawson who was a farmer in the area. The houses here were built between 2016 and 2018 and they are ugly modern houses …

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Tippet Crescent in Wigram and too new for library website. The council website didn’t give a reason for the name of the street. Between Ancestry website and Papers Past I found several people with the Tippet surname who farmed on Middle Lincoln Rd. Middle Lincoln Rd is now Wigram Rd. The houses here are mostly …

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Woodcock Road in Wigram and too new for library website. I couldn’t find the reason for the street name on the council website but personally I feel that it was probably named after a person. I searched the Ancestry website and found several people with that surname but none who lived in the area. At …

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Mays Road in St Albans – formerly May’s Road. Named after George May (1831-1917). May’s Road first appears in the Star in 1882 when land there is advertised for sale. May, a carrier, is a resident of the street in 1890 when it first appears in street directories. He later farmed at Broadfield. A small …

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