Ford Road – Named because it was the site of a ford across the Heathcote River used by early settlers travelling from Lyttelton to Christchurch. First appears in street directories in 1906.
A wee bit of information from the library website.I couldn’t find much more information on-line but think that it had been known by this name long before 1906. Ford Rd was a very common name for roads.The best article was dated 7th May 1920 in Papers Past and it mentioned that the road was called Ford Rd because of the ford and not because of a Mr Ford living in the area. Apparently it was a common belief that the road was named after a person. There were tenders for building the new Opawa school on Ford Rd as the old Opawa school was nearly 50 years old.This article also had someone complaining about using Maori names and that the council should stick to using English names.
This street had some lovely old wooden villas here. There were a couple of rebuilds and a couple of empty sections. The brick place where the peacock lives is apparently an old stable. I ended up chatting to a young woman who lives there and this property is divided into several flats.The school is still on this road.
The stables was possibly called Ball’s Stables. I also found a J T Ford & Co who was an auctioneer and wool broker but couldn’t find out what the initials J T stood for. This will be why the locals felt that Ford Rd was named after a person.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 