Sydenham and its sand ridge

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 17

Sydenham and its sand ridge

Local knowledge has produced an answer to the Geological Survey’s inquiry (“The Press,” August 2) about the location of the sand ridges which gave the Sandridge Hotel, Sydenham its name. Miss Hazel Greenfell, of St Martins, has even drawn a map showing where the original sand hills were. She says the hotel derived its name from the suburb of Sandridge, later submerged in the over-all suburb of Sydenham. Sandridge was the area east and west of Colombo Street, and approximately between Milton and Southey Streets, Miss Grenfell says. The sand ridges, or small sandhills, were between the west side of Southampton and Colombo Streets, south of Jackson’s Creek, which crosses under Colombo Street and flows behind the houses on the south side of Southampton Street, then under that street, “and so

on its way.” She says the sandhills lie south of the creek between the angle of Southampton and Colombo Streets.

“They stretched behind the sections as far as the home of one of the Rautin brothers, timber merchants. They owned the sections opposite our home, which was three doors north ' of Montrose Street, No. 63,” she adds. Miss Grenfell’s parents were married in 1903. They bought a quaftera acre section in Southampton Street for five pounds and built a fourbedroom house of kauri and totara for 500 pounds. "All of the shingle and sand needed for paths and driveway was easily available from the section just about 18 inches under the topsoil,” Miss Grenfell writes. “There was also an artesian well on our property — an ideal place for setting jellies, cooling the butter and milk in hot weather.

“We children were sometimes allowed to fly our kites in Rautin’s paddocks, and when in the early 1920 s those sections were sold, the sandhills were carted away.

“It was the end of an era. Soon new homes were built on those sections. Before that happened, the council decided to rename the whole suburb of Sandridge — it would be included in the suburb known as Sydenham.’’ k Mrs N. Marshall, of Bowenvale Avenue, also remembers the area well. She helped her father mix concrete by hand, using sand and shingle dug not far from the site in King Street.

“He knew just where to dig, L.id it wasn’t far under the surface,” Mrs Marshall says.lt was more than 70 years ago, but Mrs Marshall clearly remembers holding the watering can while her father mixed all the concrete for their new villa.