Cabbage Close in Halswell – Cabbage Street – William “Cabbage” Wilson, was Christchurch’s first mayor. He has significant links to the Halswell area, being an owner of the quarry between 1872 and 1886. William was a politician and nurseryman. He was known as “Cabbage” because he used to wear a hat made out of cabbage.

A reasonable amount of information from the city council minutes about the naming of several streets in a subdivision.

I couldn’t find any information on Papers Past about William Wilson being an owner of Halswell Quarry apart from in his obituary in 1897. He never lived in the Halswell area and if you want to know more about him read my write up of Bedford Row. He had been bankrupt at least twice and charged with fraud at least once. He was a nasty violent man who frequently beat up his wife.

I decided to walk the streets here after a letter to the editor in The Press on 12th May 2023. The letter writer was complaining about the name of this street. This street is so new that it isn’t on any maps and there aren’t any houses here yet. It was only a couple of months since I was last in the area and at that stage the area was fenced off and part of Kennedys Bush Rd was only one way and controlled by lights.

Hawthorne Park in Hoon Hay. This technically isn’t a street and the houses have Sparks Rd addresses but there is a signpost with the street name on it. At least one house is an exclusive B&B

Benrogan Drive, Perks Drive and Eastman Drive in Halswell. Too new to be on library website and the roads are still only half formed. No houses yet. The land was was sold in 2020 and had a 1970s house on it. The nearby wetlands area is called Eastman Wetlands and it is possibly named after Roy Eastman who had a connection to the council but I couldn’t find out any information. I was amused to see that the property developers are offering a free geotech report. As this land used to be a swamp I would arrange my own geotech report rather than trust the developer’s one. The council meeting that approved the names didn’t give a reason for the names.

Shorthorn Lane in Halswell – too new for library website. Shorthorn is a cattle breed but can’t find any evidence of cattle having ever been on this land. The subdivision was described as a boutique subdivision which usually means expensive. The houses here are huge on fairly large sections and built between 2021 and 2023. I thought that the subdivision was possibly part of Thornton Grange but not sure as the street was part of the Kings Wood subdivision. I couldn’t find out any more information and I checked Papers Past and Ancestry website. Thornton Grange mostly grew strawberries and asparagus plus they bred dogs.

Rempstone Drive in Halswell – Named after Rempstone, a village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe district of Nottinghamshire, England. Named because it runs alongside the Nottingham Stream. First appears in street directories in 1995.

A small amount of information from the library website. Most houses were built in the 1990s but a few were built in 1980s and 2016. I don’t know where Nottingham Stream was hiding as I didn’t see it when I walked the street. It is a pleasant tree lined street and there were so lovely gardens here. At one end there is a walkway through to Wigram Road.

Empress Place in Halswell- nothing on library website yet all all the houses were built in the 1990s. Several streets in this area have names that are titles in the peerage.

A couple of nice houses here and most had nice gardens. There was a footpath on only one side of the street but it was a very wide footpath so I don’t know why they didn’t put a normal size footpath on both sides.

Thornlea Place in Halswell- First appears in street directories in 1995. A tiny amount of information from the library website. All houses here were built in the 1990s. None of the houses stood out for me but some of the gardens were lovely. It was a tree lined streets and there is an entrance to Vanderbilt Reserve here.

Vanderbilt Place in Halswell – nothing on library website yet all the houses were built in the 1990s. The street is possibly named after the American artist Gloria Vanderbilt.

The street has a footpath on both sides of the street and there were some nice gardens here. There is a really lovely reserve here which was a real pleasure to walk through.

Viceroy Place in Halswell – nothing on library website yet most houses were built in the 1990s. Several streets in the area are named after titles in the peerage.

The footpath is on both sides of the street and there is a reserve here with a playground. There is a lamp in the middle of the wider part of the street surrounded by rock wall. Most gardens just had lawns and shrubs. There were a couple of interesting houses.

Baronet Lane in Halswell – nothing on library website yet the 5 houses here were built in 1990. Several of the streets in the area are named after titles in the peerage.

The street had a footpath and there was one house that I quite liked. I don’t usually like modern houses.