Marshland, a most confusing street name | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

It appears the city's street sign makers have blundered over one of Christchurch's the most orally contentious roads.

Officially 'Marshland Rd' on paper, two of its signs have taken a cue from the spoken tradition and acquired an 's'.

The 'Marshlands Rd' signs are at the Shirley Rd intersection.

But a city council spokeswoman confirmed this week there was "definitely no question about it."

"Both the road and the area are Marshland.

"No 's'.

"So anything else is wrong," she said.

The suburb was originally known as Rhodes' Swamp, after landowner Robert Heaton Rhodes (1815-1884) and the boggy soil in the area.

Polish immigrants laboured on the draining of the swamp in the late 1800s, which proved very suitable for vegetable growing and dairy farming.

The present suburb began to develop in the early twentieth century.

But confusion over its proper name, and that of its main road, remains rife.

One resident spoken to by The Star said he knew it was Marshland Rd, but that "just about everyone that says it puts the 's' on it."