Desi Place – nothing on new or old library website. I couldn’t find out anything about this street. I checked council minutes but that only gave me information about restricting parking on the street. I have come up with a theory about the name of the street but couldn’t find any proof. The street runs off Nuttall Drive and I did find a Des Nuttall but Ancestry and Papers Past didn’t help. I checked old maps and the street wasn’t there in 1983 and street view has it fairly well established in 2008.

I find that Sunday is the best day for walking streets in industrial areas. Obviously it is mostly businesses here but a couple of the properties looked like there are people living in them. There is a footpath on both sides of the street which normally means that it is an older street. I have always frequently driven along Port Hills going to Lyttelton but I can’t remember when this area was developed.

Ketton Place in St Albans – Named after Ketton, a village and civil parish in Rutland in the East Midlands of England. Named because it is near Rutland Street. First appears in street directories in 1970.

A small amount of information on the library website. Most entries were ads for the sale of houses and sections in the late 1960s. A couple of death notices and a couple of engagement notices. The houses here cover every decade from 1950 to 2023. There was a footpath on both sides of the street which I always like. It was a pleasant street but nothing stood out for me so no photos.

Kenwyn Ave in St Albans – Named after Ken and Winston Nicholls, two sons of the developer. Formed on 5 acres of land off Mays Road owned by Percy Stanley Nicholls (d. 1974), a land agent.A Papanui war memorial street. First appears in street directories in 1950. Information supplied in 2006 by Eileen Thomson in an interview with Margaret Harper.

A small amount of information from the library website. I am curious as to why it is Kenwyn and not Kenwin if it is named after his sons. Note there is a place in Cornwall called Kenwyn.

Several entries on Papers Past and in 1948 there was an article about the bus service. From 1950 onwards most of the entries were about the best garden awards. There wee ads for a company called Beatty and Beatty who were an asphalt and concrete business. I was a bit worried about the street’s cooks as there were several oven fires in the 1950s. A few death notices and in 1980s they used to hold a street party every December. In 1953 the street was amalgamated with the city. This street is one of the Papanui Memorial Avenues and there is a plaque hanging from a lamp post on this street. There is no mention in Papers Past about this but it is briefly mentioned on a website about the Memorial Avenues. Trees were planted on the street as part of it being a Memorial Avenue.

The houses here date from 1920 to 2024 which surprised me as the street was supposed to have been developed in 1950. Nearly one third of the houses were built before 1950. I looked at older maps and it is on the map for 1950. Part of the street is on the maps for 1930 and 1941 and it looks like it was part of Mays Rd.

It is a pleasant looking street and many of the older houses are looking lovely. There is a walkway at the end of the street plus a reserve called Rutland Reserve where there is a playground. Outside one house there were free items and I took the books and the Halloween items. I will leave the books at a book exchange and turn the Halloween items into geocaches.

Edited to say that Percy Nicholls as well as being a real estate agent he was a tenor who was in an opera company in the 1920s. He also wrote music and one of his pieces was called Menin Gate Vision.

Mary Carpenter Avenue in Yaldhurst and Hei Hei and it is too new for the library website. Information from the council website – The road names have been chosen in accordance with the theme of Womens Suffrage in the 125th year of celebration of women being granted voting rights. The reason for this theme is that the first women to sign the original petition, Mary Carpenter, lived at the site under development.

Mary Carpenter and her husband did live here and her husband was a farmer. I checked Ancestry and Papers Past but the best information was from several articles written in 2018 about Mary. Best to search under Mary Jane Carpenter to get the correct person. The family claimed that they were possibly related to Bishop Harper as they had an ancestor with the surname Harper. It is highly unlikely and you always have to take family stories with a grain of salt. I found this out when researching my own family tree.

Most houses here were built in 2020 and are in Yaldhurst. There are a few houses still being built and they are in Hei Hei. I had to check maps as the valuation website was a bit confusing.

The houses didn’t really stand out for me and but there is a nice wide footpath. Pity it is a shared footpath with cyclists. There is a walkway that leads to a reserve plus another walkway that goes nowhere. I chatted with a local and he didn’t know if it would eventually become a proper walkway. A few houses here had Christmas lights so it would be very colourful at night.

Hunia Place in Yaldhurst and too new for the library website. Information from the council website – Huhana (Susan) Enright nee Hunia (1902-1981) is the Great, Great Grandmother of the developer, and is from Pawarenga in the Hokianga (Far North). Susie was born on 21 March 1902, of the Te Uri o Tai hapu and of the Te Rarawa iwi – part of the greater Ngāpuhi tribe. Susie was one of 10 children, three of whom died in the 1918 flu epidemic.

Not much information on Ancestry or Papers Past.

This street doesn’t have any houses yet and I couldn’t walk the street as it is fenced off. I will have to come back to this area and walk it when it was more developed.

Arabella Crescent in Yaldhurst and too new for the library website. Information from the council website – Arabella Andersen was one of the first signatories of the Suffrage Petition and lived nearby. Checked Papers Past and Ancestry. Note her surname was spelt Anderson and there were two women with the same name who signed the Petition. They were mother and daughter. Sadly the daughter died suddenly in 1896 aged 24 from a perforated ulcer. I couldn’t find any evidence that the family ever lived in this area. Charles and Arabella Anderson lived in Rangiora and Arabella moved to Christchurch after her husband died. She was living in Merivale when she died.

Most houses here were built in 2020 and I didn’t take any photos. There is a walkway that leads to a reserve. I didn’t like this street as there wasn’t a footpath so I had to walk on the road.

Ada Wells Court in Yaldhurst – too new for the library website. Information from the council website – the first female Christchurch City Councillor. The road names have been chosen in accordance with the theme of Womens Suffrage in the 125th year of celebration of women being granted voting rights. Te Ara – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography has information about Ada Wells. There is also a Wikipedia page for Ada Wells.

Only a couple of half finished houses here at this stage

Navarra Road in Halswell and too new for the library website. Council website said that the street was named after the racehorse Navarra Franco.

The houses here have been built between 2022 and 2024 with some empty sections still. No photos as nothing stood out for me here. Modern houses with lawns and shrubs. No colour as not many flowers in the gardens but a few houses did have Christmas decorations in their gardens.

Whitburn Avenue in Halswell and too new to be on the library website. Information from the council website – Whitburn is understood to be the place where John Miln’s mother Catherine lived after his father in Scotland. That sentence from the council website makes no sense at all. It should say after his father died. I don’t know who is responsible for loading the council minutes online but I found found several mistakes. When Catherine Miln died she was living with her daughter and son-in-law in the Whitburn area. Checking the map for Whitburn in Scotland I realised that I would have driven past Whitburn a couple of times when driving between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

None of the houses stood out for me here but as the houses were built between 2020 and 2024 many of the gardens were nice. There was one house with great Christmas decorations and garden ornaments and I would love to have managed to have got a photo here. What I do remember is the lovely reserve here and I visited this reserve a year ago when geocaching. There is also a playground at the Milns Road end called Whitburn Park

Collier Drive in Halswell and too new for the library website. Information from the council website – Jean Collier was one of the first New Zealand women to own property in New Zealand. It would have saved me a lot of time if the council website had her correct name of Jeanie Collier. Last night I searched Ancestry and Papers Past with no luck and then by sheer luck I discovered her correct name. It was nearly midnight so I had another look this morning. Practically nothing on Ancestry and this would be because she was a single woman with no children. Found a few entries on Papers Past with her correct name. There is a Wikipedia page for her but it has very little information. The best information is at Te Ara – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. She came to New Zealand via Australia aged about 63 and she was accompanied by three nephews and a brother. She took up a property in South Canterbury and is acknowledged as the first woman runholder in New Zealand. She is also supposed to have been the first white woman in the Waimate area. She died in September 1861 and sadly her nephews squandered their inheritance from their aunt. I found a couple of mentions online about her grave including Findagrave and I realised that I had visited her grave. there used to be a multi cache where you needed information from her gravestone. The grave is also what we would call a lonely grave. It is in a paddock down a long rural road in the back of beyond.

Why they decided to name a street after someone who had never lived in Christchurch I don’t know but I certainly seriously sidetracked researching Jeanie Collier. They possibly used this name because Jeanie was born in Scotland and John Miln who originally owned most of the land here was also from Scotland.

This is a fairly long road and the houses didn’t really stand out for me. At one end there are houses on both sides of the street but at the Sparks Road end the houses are only on one side of the street. The other side hasn’t been developed yet. At one spot there was an old looking parking area yet there wasn’t a road here before 2020. I drive down Sparks Road a lot and have watched this area change from farmland to housing subdivisions. Don’t get me started on about all the roadworks this year on Sparks Road in the area.