Plunket Street in Spreydon – Formerly Schauman Street. May be named after Karl Osten Schauman (1874?-1935). Re-named Plunket Street. Named after Sir William Lee Plunket, 5th Baron Plunket (1864-1920). Schauman was born in Finland and emigrated to New Zealand. He was described as a gentleman of Sumner in 1906 and was involved with the Canterbury Investment Company. He was naturalised in 1905 but this was revoked in 1917. He later moved to California and died in England. Schauman Street is described as a “new street” in a report in The Press of a meeting of the Woolston Borough Council in 1905. Appears in 1907 street directories only.Re-named Plunket Street in 1908. Lord Plunket was the Governor of New Zealand 1904-1910.A huge amount of information the library website but I am not sure that it is correct.

The first entries on Papers Past were in 1911 when there were several ads for the sale of a house and stables. In 1913 there were several sections for sale. I couldn’t find anything about the naming of this street. I could find no evidence of any street called Schauman St. Karl Schauman lived in Sumner with his second wife Lucy. He was naturalised on 30th May 1905 but couldn’t find any document to say it had been revoked but as he was no longer living in New Zealand by 1917 it is possible that it automatically revoked. It doesn’t sound like he was living in New Zealand for very long as he married his second wife in 1901 in England. This was the same year his first wife died. He appears in English census records for 1901. The new street mentioned in the library website was actually near Opawa Railway Station and all his land dealings seem to be in the Opawa area. In 1904 he was using Risingholme as an address in ads for the selling of land from estates originally belonging to Judge Williams and Mr Rhodes. I couldn’t find any other information linking Karl Schauman to Risingholme apart from these ads. I couldn’t find any evidence of Karl being in New Zealand after 1907. He married his third wife in England in 1933 and he died in England in 1935. Interesting history but I personally feel that he had no link to Plunket St.Karl’s history was far more interesting than Lord Plunket even if he has nothing to do with the street.This street runs from Neville St to Edinburgh St and the houses date from 1905 to 2016. A pleasant looking street with some nice houses.

Rustic Lane in Spreydon. This street isn’t on the library website. It is a private lane that runs off Lyttelton Street between 353 and 355 Lyttelton Street. I couldn’t find out how the lane got it’s name and the meaning of rustic is relating to countryside or rural. All the houses here are from the 1990s except for one from 1940.

Redruth Ave in Spreydon – Probably named after Redruth in Cornwall, England. Not much information from the library website.

I found a reasonable amount of information on Papers Past but not much on ancestry website. The land was owned by James William Smitham who lived on Selwyn St. Some of the land possibly originally belonged to his father-in-law Joseph Cox who died in 1909. James married Alice Cox in January 1895. James is described as being the only son of James Smitham of Redruth in Cornwall. This explains the name of the street. James was the proprietor of the Cashmere Picnic Grounds. He must have also had a store in Cashmere as he sold it in 1909 along with a large section of land. In 1910 in is mentioned that J W Smitham has submitted plans for the new street that runs from Selwyn St to Strickland St. There was an auction of sections along with a description that the estate is now roaded and channelled by Mr Blogg under the direction of the well know surveyor Mr F W Freeman. In December 1910 there was an auction of furniture and other goods as Mr Smitham was leaving for Queensland. On a cemetery website I found his grave and he is buried at Apple Tree Cemetery in Queensland and he died in November 1929 aged 65 years and his wife Alice died in 1941 aged 75.Most the houses on this street are wooden bungalows built in 1910, 1915 or 1920s. There are 4 or 5 from 1970s or 1990s that are on back sections. There are some seriously cool houses on this street and I love them. One or two have been ruined by being modernised. I did like this street. The street no longer runs to Strickland St as James K Baxter Place is between Redruth Ave and Strickland St.

Dundee Place in Spreydon – Named in 1955. Not a lot of information on the library website.

This street runs off Edinburgh St where 17 and 19 Edinburgh St would have been. Most streets in this area have a Scottish theme. Most houses are built in 1950 and at the end of the street there is a social housing complex. The street address for the complex is 16 Dundee Place but they are called Maurice Carter Courts and are owned by the City Council. Most of the units were built in the 1990s but 12 new units were built in 2012. There are apparently a total of 51 units here. They also have a communal hall which was badly damaged by a suspicious fire in December 2018. The units looked really nice and tidy. On the corner of Dundee Place and Edinburgh St there was a house with a fantastic garden. The trees and high fences made it difficult to see and I will confess to peering through the fence. The garden was gorgeous.

Urella Place in Spreydon. This street isn’t on the library website yet it dates back to the 1970s. Strangely for a street that was developed back then there is a footpath on only one side of the street. Older streets normally have footpaths on both sides of the street. Most houses date from 1970s with about three from 1980s and a couple from 2016. The street seems to be developed where 185 Lyttelton Street would have been. Houses are mostly made of brick with a few exceptions. Near the Lyttelton Street end there are flat roofed flats built in the 1970s and they stand out as they are different to the rest of the houses. It is unusual to get flat roofed houses from this era as most in this style in Christchurch date back to the 1930s and 1940s. I chatted with one of the owners of these flats and he said that he has problems with leaks. He also said that it is a pleasant street to live in and almost too convenient for Barrington Mall.I had an uncle live in this street at one stage but can’t remember the exact dates and I just couldn’t remember which house he lived in. I had in my head that it was one of the flat roofed flats. I couldn’t find out how this street got it’s name. No one with that surname in New Zealand. There was a racehorse with that name in the 1920s. There is a place name in Australia Uralla and a village in India called Urella. I am amused that one real estate attempted to put this street into the suburb of Cashmere.

Glynne Crescent in Spreydon – Named after Mary, Baroness Lyttelton, née Glynne, (1813-1857). Mary was the wife of Sir George William Lyttelton, 4th Lord Lyttelton, Baron of Frankley (1817-1876). He was a member of the Canterbury Association from 1848. Several streets in this area have names associated with the Lyttelton family because they were formed on Rural Section 76, 700 acres on the “Lower Lincoln Road, Heathcote Bridge” purchased by Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer (1798-1857) and Conway Lucas Rose (1817-1910). Spencer’s interest in the land was passed on to his nephew, the Hon. George William Spencer Lyttelton (1847- 1913), the 4th son of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876). First appears in street directories in 1950.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. I found a wee snippet from Papers Past dated 1889 and it was a copy of an article from an English paper dated 1839. The article was about the double wedding of Mary Glynne and her sister Miss Glynne. Mary married Lord Lyttelton and her sister married William Gladstone who later became Prime Minister. For the article not to use the sister’s name but to refer to her as Miss Glynne she had to be the eldest sister. Mary died in 1857 and Lord Lyttelton remarried in 1869. I couldn’t find anything about this street on Papers Past yet most the houses were built in 1940s with one house dating from 1910 and another from 1920. The houses built in 1940s and 1950s were obvious state houses and there were ads for carpenters to work on Government houses in Spreydon. Some houses were in reasonable condition. There is a wee park here with a playground. The houses didn’t really stand out for me as they were typical looking for state houses of that era. Even the two older houses didn’t stand out as I would have expected. There are new houses being built for Kainga Ora which is the name for the Government dept that used to be Housing Corp and previous to that was called State Housing. The houses that were demolished to make way for the new houses were really nice looking tidy houses on decent sized sections.

Gleig Place in Spreydon- Named after the George Robert Gleig (1796- 1888). Gleig was a member of the Canterbury Association from 27 March 1848 until he resigned 25 November 1851. Several streets in this area have names associated with the Canterbury Association and, especially, the Lyttelton family because they were formed on Rural Section 76, 700 acres on the “Lower Lincoln Road, Heathcote Bridge” purchased by Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer (1798-1857) and Conway Lucas Rose (1817- 1910). Spencer’s interest in the land was passed on to his nephew, the Hon. George William Spencer Lyttelton (1847- 1913), the 4th son of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876). First appears in street directories in 1950.A reasonable of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. Nothing in Papers Past about the street and most the houses here have the appearance of being state houses. Most date from 1950s with 7 properties dating from 1990s. There is a wee walkway at the end of the street that takes you through to Lyttelton St. I didn’t really like this street or feel safe here and was pleased it was a short street. At the end next to the walkway was a large properties with high fences, locked gates and you had to ring a bell to be let in. A huge sign about dogs on the property and I think that there were cameras. The dogs sounded ferocious. Rev George Robert Gleig was born in Stirling and his father was a minister in the Scottish Episcopal Church. George fought in France under Wellington and then in the USA. After the wars he returned to studies and became a minister. I was surprised to find someone from Scotland connected to the Canterbury Association as that was a strong Anglican Association. A bit of googling and the Scottish Episcopal Church was linked to the Anglican Church. George died in England and lived close to Winchester

Weir Place in Hoon Hay- Named after the Weir family. Henry Weir (1835?- 1884) and his wife, Mary Jane, settled in Halswell in 1863, living on Hoon Hay Road. Their son, Walter Henry Weir (1877-1935) farmed at Dalkeith, 99 Hoon Hay Road. He “always took a keen interest in the affairs of the Cashmere – Halswell district”. First appears in street directories in 1953.A small amount of information from the library website and I am going to have to disagree with the library as they have put this street into the suburb of Halswell. This street is near Hoon Hay Road and nowhere near Halswell and I suspect that the person at the library got misled by the obituary which says that the Weir family lived in Halswell and that Henry Weir settled in Halswell when he arrived in NZ. The obituary is the only place that mentions Halswell. I checked Papers Past and the ancestry website and apart from the obituary all the other information has the Weir family living on Hoon Hay Road at a property called Dalkeith. Most mentions of the property have it in Spreydon and the street is on the edge of Spreydon. Henry Weir married Mary Jane Barrett in January 1875 but sadly she died in October 1877 aged 25. Henry Weir died in 1883 aged 49. In 1884 his farm in Spreydon was offered up for lease for a seven year period. There was another item in 1884 where Alexander Weir was appointed guardian of the infants Florence Mary and Walter Henry Weir. Walter Henry Weir went on to farm the same property and was also a member of the Spreydon Road Board. Walter Henry Weir died in 1935 aged only 58 and it is his obituary that has him living in Halswell which isn’t backed up by electoral rolls of the day. The ancestry website has Henry Weir as being born in Dublin yet he named his property after a place in Scotland. The family trees on ancestry were just as confused about his wife Mary Jane Barrett as some had her born in Cornwall and others had her born in Australia. I couldn’t find a connection to my Barrett ancestors but didn’t spend a lot of time looking.There are only 16 properties here and most were built in the 1950s with one from 1980 and another from 1990. It was a pleasant street with some lovely gardens. There was one huge house from the 1950s that I suspect has been extended. I even quite liked the more modern house on the street. The side of the street closest to the Heathcote River is lower than the other side yet the street that it runs off is flat. No photos for this street.

Smartlea Street in Hoon Hay – First appears in street directories in 1953.A tiny amount of information from the library which is disappointing as the street is named after an interesting man. There is also a Smarts Road in Hornby named after the same man. Lea means a meadow or field so the meaning of the street name is Smart’s field. The street is named after Samuel Smart and Papers Past and the ancestry website had reasonable of information him. Samuel was born in Nottingham, UK and he came out to New Zealand on the ship Zealandia in 1858 with his wife and children. His wife gave birth to a child on board ship. His first contract in New Zealand was building a wharf in Lyttelton for the government. Samuel was a contractor specialising in asphalt and is credited with introducing asphalt into New Zealand. Samuel leant his trade working for his uncle in Nottingham. He lived on Milton Street and was a member of the Spreydon Road Board. I realised that I already knew about this man from previously reading about Smart’s Pond. Samuel had a quarry which eventually filled up with water so he stocked with fish. I found entries calling it Smart’s celebrated fish lake and one article used the word piscine. Samuel then purchased land in Hornby to use as a quarry. Samuel died in 1897 and his son Alfred continued in the family business.This is a short street running from Heathcote River to Hoon Hay Road. There is a wee bridge over the river between Glynne Crescent and Smartlea Street. Most the houses were built in 1950s with only 4 or 5 houses from a later date. Most houses are in good condition with nice gardens. One or two are looking a bit rundown but it looked like a pleasant wee street. One house on the corner of Smartlea St and Weir Place had a garden so immaculate that I could imagine weeds being too scared to grow there. There was an Art Deco looking house but I couldn’t get a good look at it because of the well established trees around it. Pity as Art Deco houses are usually very interesting.

Haddon Lane in Harewood. There was nothing on the library website about this street. I assumed that it was because it was a very new street so was very surprised to find that the houses date from 1995 and 2005. The houses were huge and there are only 9 houses here. One house was very Mediterranean looking and I wish that I could have got a photo of it. Another house was extremely modern looking and looked more like a office building than a house. The street is where 298 Gardiners Road would have been. At the end of the street there is a reserve that leads to Springvale Gardens. The value of these houses was a little bit beyond my budget. I searched cemetery database and ancestry website but couldn’t find anyone with the surname Haddon that lived in this area. There is also a place called Haddon in England but suspect that it is more likely to be named after someone but couldn’t find out who. This street isn’t on Street View.