Hillier Place in the suburb of Spreydon, Christchurch

Hillier Place – nothing on library website. I was surprised that this street wasn’t on the library website as most houses date from 1930s.

I couldn’t find anything on Papers Past under Hillier Place but found a few entries under the name Hillier Street. I suspect that the name was changed when street entrance to Jerrold St was closed but couldn’t find the information. Sections were for sale in 1927 and 1929. There was also an entry in 1938 about 10 sections for state houses. Most houses date from 1930s and 1940s but there was a confused one on the QV website that said it was built in 2000 but described as mixed aged. This house had sales records going back to 1987.

I suspect that this street is named after a person and I have narrowed it down to two men called Nehemiah Hillier. One was a retired farmer who lived on Antigua St and the other one was a gardener who lived on Taramea Place. The one who lived on Taramea Place is my best bet but obviously this is just a theory from me.

Most of the houses were in reasonable condition except for one house. One house that was having work done on it had an interesting letterbox.There was a house by Jerrold St end that looked like it was in terrible condition. It was hard to actually see the house because of the junk surrounding the house plus the growth of the grass and plants.

A friend on Facebook mentioned a street called Little Hillier Street which went from Hillier Street to Spencer Street. Found a map from 2004 which showed both of these streets. Little Hillier disappeared when the motorway was built and Hillier Street became a place. The motorway extended when I was living in the UK.