High Street – Formerly Sumner Road. Named after the bishopric of Sumner. Re-named Lower High Street and later High Street. Probably named after a street in Oxford, England, The High, as Christchurch itself was named after the college in Oxford. Sumner Road was named by surveyors Captain Joseph Thomas (b. 1803?) and Edward Jollie (1825-1894) and is one of the original streets of Christchurch named in 1850. The names were taken from bishoprics listed in Burke’s Peerage. The 1850 map shows it originally ran from Hereford Street to St Asaph Street. An 1874 map shows Sumner Road extending as far as the East Belt (later Fitzgerald Avenue). By 1875 this section has been re-named Ferry Road; by 1890 it has been re-named Lower High Street.
A lot of information from the library website but I am not sure it is entirely correct. When it was named Sumner Rd this is likely to have been named after John Bird Sumner who was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1849 and he was President of the Canterbury Association. I have searched Burke’s Peerage and Bishopric list and can find no Sumner Bishopric and there is no place name of Sumner in the UK. To be a bishopric there would have to be a city with that name.
The name High Street could be named after a street in Oxford but honestly every town, city and tiny village in the UK has a High Street. I suspect that it was given the name High Street because it was where most the original shops were.
If anyone can find any other reason for the names I would love to know,
This street was badly damaged in the earthquakes because there were a lot of old and heritage buildings here. Towards the centre of the city there are the newer buildings and you can see that there are still damaged buildings at the other end. In some places new and old are next to each other.
Bookcrossers will remember the coffee shop where we had a bookshelf and sadly that coffee shop is long gone. Our books were buried in the rubble.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 