Jane Deans Close in Riccarton – Named after Jane Deans (1823- 1911). Jane Deans was an early Riccarton settler and community leader. Formed post-1997.

A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. There is a Wikipedia page about Jane Deans and it incorrectly states that she is a New Zealand author.

The houses here were built in 1990 and 2000 and it is a lovely street. A couple of the houses were ugly but I liked most of them. The entrance to the street had a leafy arbour. At the end of the street there is a cairn with a war memorial on it. Pity that this street is well beyond my budget. I had been visiting the Buddhist Temple that is nearby on Riccarton Rd as part of Open Christchurch.

Parkhouse Road in Wigram – formerly Part of Curletts Road. Named after Jaynie Margaret Hudgell, née Parkhouse, (1956-).Jaynie Hudgell is a swimmer who won a gold medal in the 800m freestyle event at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch. The section of Curletts Road from the expressway to Treffers Road was re-named Parkhouse Road on 4 June 1974.

A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. I remember when Jaynie Parkhouse won her gold medal because she was only 17 years old and still at school.

Not much information on Papers Past. In 1974 the street name was changed from Curletts Rd to Parkhouse Rd. In 1979 the construction of the refuse station had several mentions. In the same year there were plans to extend Parkhouse Rd to Hayton Rd.

I was a bit confused about the name change to Parkhouse Rd until I looked at old maps. Treffers Rd used to be Curletts Rd and there was a very sharp turn onto where Parkhouse Rd now is and then another very sharp turn onto the current Curletts Rd.

This road mostly has businesses related to the motor vehicle industry. There is still a refuse station here but it is now called EcoDrop. The most interesting looking building is the one for United Fisheries. I walked this street on ANZAC Day and I find that such streets are best walked when businesses are closed. I remember using the panel beaters on this street several decades ago.

Hillary Crescent in Upper Riccarton – Named after Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (1919- 2008). In a block of 28 acres bought by the government for state housing in 1953. The land was formerly owned by Pyne, Gould Guinness Ltd and was in Curletts Road between Blenheim Road and the Main South Road. Named on 10 August 1953. Hillary climbed Mount Everest in 1953. Minutes and report of meeting of Housing Committee of the Paparua County Council held on 10 August 1953.

A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name.

Papers Past had lots of death notices and residents on this street seemed to be an accident prone lot. There was an article in 1953 about the three streets in the new housing block to be named Hillary Crescent, Tensing Street and Everest Ave. I have already walked Tensing Place and I couldn’t find Everest Ave. In 1957 residents petitioned for a bus service. There were houses for sale in the 1960s.

When I walked this street on Sunday it is obvious that there are still Housing Corp / Kainga Ora houses on this street. There are a few Kainga Ora houses that have been demolished and replaced with multi dwellings. I had trouble getting into the valuation website that I use for this street but most houses would have been built in the 1950s and then the new ones built in 2024. Some of the houses are privately owned. There is a playground called Hillary Reserve on this street and there were at least three or four shopping trolleys in the reserve.

Mcalpine Street in Wigram and nothing on the library website. I couldn’t find any mention on council website either.

On Papers Past the earliest entry was in 1963 where it is mentioned as a new street in the Railways Dept Industrial subdivision. It was named after John Mcalpine who was the Minister of Railways. Various ads have it in the suburbs of Souckburn and Upper Riccarton but it has settled itself in the suburb of Wigram. Most ads were for businesses related to transport.

John Kenneth Mcapline died in 1984 and as well as being Minister of Transport he had a connection to the Lyttelton Harbour Board. His obituary said that his efforts helped to build the Christchurch International Airport. A special note to all my Lyttelton friends is that this man worked on the Lyttelton waterfront in 1951 and he was proud of this. Yes he was a scab.

I walked this street yesterday and it would be too busy to walk on a normal working day. It is still full of businesses related to the transport industry and the two biggest ones are Mainfreight and Daily Freight. At the Curletts Rd end there is a footpath that takes you up to Curletts Rd overbridge. I suspect that this street used to go across Curletts Rd but couldn’t find any maps to show this.

Jipcho Road in Wigram and nothing on library website or council website. I managed to find out how the street got name Jipcho from a media article in an African newspaper. Ben Jepicho was a Kenyan athlete who won two gold medals at the 1974 Commonwealth Games here in Christchurch. He was born in 1943 and died in 2020.

Another street with businesses and the main entrance to VTNZ is on this street. I did like the sign on the truck and trailer business. Note I couldn’t find the geocache that is supposed to be hidden on this street which was really annoying.

Edited as I obviously forgot to look at Papers Past for this street. The street was built on railway land in the 1980s and in 1989 they used a helicopter to dry the asphalt on a building site in the street. There was also a horse called Jipcho so the street was possibly named after the horse but then the horse was possibly named after the runner.

Edited yet again and this street is highly likely to have been named after Ben Jipcho as surrounding streets were named after competitors at the 1974 Commonwealth Games

Kilronan Place in Wigram and nothing on the library website. Couldn’t find anything on the council website about the street name. The street was probably developed between 2003 and 2005. Possibly named after Kilronan in Ireland which is a village on one of the Aran Islands.

It is another street with businesses and I find that it is best to walk these streets which the businesses are closed. The VTNZ building is rather brightly coloured.

Tenahaun Place in Wigram and nothing on the library website. I couldn’t find out the meaning of the name but there was a property with that name in the Mayfield and Mt Somers area. There is also a track and conservation area with that name. I also found a racehorse with that name. I couldn’t find any on the council website about the name. The street would have been developed between 2003 and 2007.

The biggest business in the street is Pavillion Foods which seems to produce and sell gluten free food. Not a lot that I can say about the street.

Pilkington Way in Wigram – Named after the Pilkington family. The source says the family has had “a long association with Canterbury”. Developed by Laing Contractors/Calcon Asphalt Ltd. Named in 2003

A small amount of information from the library website. I checked Ancestry website and the surname was more common than I was expecting. I didn’t find anyone with that name who lived or farmed in the area. I found council minutes from 2003 which just said that the name had been approved and that three pages of information about the family had been given to Board members. The new library website added this information which wasn’t on the old website. Further information Possibly this Pilkington family;

G R Macdonald dictionary of Canterbury biographies: P403a. Note the links on the new website don’t work but I managed to find out that G R Macdonald dictionary was referring to a Benjamin Pilkington. I didn’t bother researching any further.

This street was developed in a new business subdivision and it obviously has businesses here. One business which takes up a huge section is Viridian Glass and there is a Tesla Service Centre on the street as well. I was going to walk this street a few years ago as Hancocks Wine and Spirit Merchants are on this street. My son worked for Hancocks and I was going to have a bit of fun and stir him by joking that I was stalking him. My son was made redundant after lockdown so that took all the fun out of that. The up side was that he got a much better job.

Jeffreys Rd – Named after Charles Alured Jeffreys (1821- 1904). Jeffreys owned the 200 acre Bryndwr estate. First appears in street directories in 1894.

A small amount of information from the library website. The library website puts the street in the suburbs of Fendalton and Strowan. Real Estate agents also use the suburb of Bryndwr for this street.

There were lots of entries on Papers Past and in 1884 the unformed part of the road to be formed. In 1898 a large house was destroyed by fire. Between 1901 and 1920 the Bryndwr Nurseries was mentioned. In 1927 the foundation stone for a new church was laid. Same year the St Johns Methodist Sunday School was mentioned. In 1950 a wooden temporary church is to be replace by a stone building. Not sure which church this was as in 1957 it was mentioned that St Matthews Catholic Church was needed and then in 1964 it said that new Catholic church being built to replace temporary one.

In 1931 a business called Sherwood Sawmills Ltd was mentioned. In 1956 the council yards and pumping station was mentioned. From 1957 onwards the entries are about the new council offices which will include a library.

In 1880 the property called Bryndwr was sold and in 1881 there were 140 sections available. Charles Alured Jeffreys was returning to the UK which is why he was selling up. There was an article in 1924 which mentioned that the suburb of Bryndwr was named after the property that belonged to a Welshman. The meaning of Bryndwr was on the brink of the water.

I walked this street a few weeks ago after visiting the library on this street. I started at the Clyde Road end of the street where the library is. Next to the library is the Jeffreys Reserve and then there are houses. The St Johns Church is on the corner of Jeffreys Road and Bryndwr Road. On the corner of Jeffreys Road and Idris Road there is St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School and St Matthews Church. There is also Jeffreys Giraffe Early Learning Centre. The street ends at Wairakei Road. There is a variety of house styles and they look as if they are from every decades. For some reason I couldn’t get the information that I wanted from the valuation website that I normally use unless I did each property individually. I only had this problem with this street as I tested the website with other streets. Weird. There is a big empty section at the St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School where buildings have been demolished. There was an interesting house that I liked and I ended up talking to the owner. The house was built in 1940 and was a bungalow but it is now a two story quirky looking house. Some of the houses look like they are from the 1920s and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are houses from 1905 and 1910. Frustrating that I can’t access this information like I can usually access it.

When I walked the street I assumed that it would have been named after someone with the surname Jeffrey as the letter s on the end of a street name usually means this. I was hoping that the street would be named after one of my Jeffrey / Jeffery ancestors.

Sunbeam Place in Halswell – Named after Alfred George Sunbeam (1921- 1995). Sunbeam raised horses on this site. He was the son of Henry (1893-1979) and his wife, Helena Louise Sunbeam, née Cockle, (1898-1983). His paternal grandparents were Henry Suraj Bullie/Sunbeam (1834-1904) and Harriett, née Townsend, (b. 1869). In a Paparua County subdivision dating from 1984. First appears in street directories in 1987. Information about naming supplied in 2012 by Jo-Anne Sunbeam. Information about date of subdivision supplied in 2009 by Bob Pritchard, subdivisions officer, Christchurch City Council.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website for a tiny street. Papers Past only had a couple of ads and a couple of death notices. Alfred George Sunbeam lived on Gore Street when he was retired and his father Henry also lived at the same address. Gore Street is close to Sunbeam Place. Alfred’s grandfather Henry Sunbeam was born in India and I found a photo of him on the Ancestry website. The photo was dated 1871 and it sounds like he changed his name to Henry Sunbeam not long after coming to New Zealand as his birth name was probably Suraj Bullie. In the 1880s he owned a pawnshop but he was a chimney sweep in 1900. Sadly he died in Sydenham Park from injuries after felling a tree. Any entries on Papers Past usually describe him as being a member of the dusky race.

The surname is bugging me as I am convinced that I knew someone with this surname. It is possibly from my year at Woolston Primary School and I will have to find my school photo from that year.

I walked this street a month ago and nothing on the street stood out for me and all the houses were built in the 1980s.