An intriguing street name at a new development in Brookfield has residents turning heads.

Cheese Factory Lane is the name of a new street at Norfolk Rise, a residential subdivision that is being developed by Abron Group near Jonathon St in Brookfield.

Its name has attracted the interest of many locals in the area.

Nearby resident Valerie Hirst says she became interested by the new street name after it was signposted earlier this week.

'We're all wondering if maybe there was a cheese factory up there, nobody knows, it must have been a long time ago,” she says.

Abron Group marketing and administration manager Abbie Raleigh says she has received plenty of communication from curious neighbours after settling on the name, which she says wasn't a first choice.

'Tauranga City Council have stringent rules around road naming and sometimes what we originally plan to be permitted in our developments doesn't quite pan out,” she says.

'As there were other street names in the TCC and Western Bay catchments with reference to "Norfolk", this was unfortunately not permitted, so we went to the drawing board.

'Cheese Factory Lane gains its historical significance from the area across the valley from our development.

'In 1883, local farmers established a cheese factory on the corner of Waihi Road and what is now Otumoetai Road.

'The Factory wasn't a commercial success and closed in the late 1890's but many of the older locals would still refer to that corner as "Cheesy Factory Hill" even into the 1950s and 60s.

'We thought it was rather an unusual name and believe me there was much discussion in the office over the submission of that name but we thought we'd throw it in the hat. The response from the council was they loved it, and it was approved.”

She says the names of the Right of Ways within the development have yet another different theme.

'Local residents may remember or know the previous owner and will know that horses were kept on that land. So we've gone with the horse theme calling the ROW's Stable Way, Bridle Way and Equine Way.”