Rutherford Street in the suburb of Woolston, Christchurch

Rutherford St – formerly Princes Street, Probably named after Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). Princes Street first appears in street directories in 1887. Re-named Rutherford Street on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were re-named. Rutherford was a scientist. [It was extended in 1985 as the only vehicular bridge across the Woolston Cut.]A small amount of information from the library website and I forgot to check if anyone with the surname Rutherford lived on the street. Got seriously sidetracked with Nurse Turner.Princes St was a popular name for streets in New Zealand and thousands of entries on Papers Past so I limited by search to Princes St Woolston. In 1886 it was referred to as Cemetery Rd but that was possibly just an informal name. In 1924 the cemetery was referred to as Old Time Cemetery as was described as nearly full with a well built mortuary chapel. Sexton was paid £50 a year and plots cost £23. Locals were objecting to extending the cemetery. A few years later there was a complaint about the state of the graves and the chairman of the trust replied that it was up to the families to maintain the graves and the trust had no money to be able to do maintenance. Cemetery now called Rutherford St Cemetery but previously was known as Woolston CemeteryIn 1914 a company called Gerstena Food Manufacturing Company was established on the street. In 1919 there was mention of the Woolston Tannery on the corner of Princes St and the Heathcote River. In 1920 a fire destroyed the wool scouring and tannery plant owned by Walter Hill. Fire believed to have started in the wool drying area. In 1943 there was mention of a small fire at the wool scouring works.In 1930 there were tenders received for the building of a bridge over the Heathcote River and going by the description of the finished bridge I suspect that it is the one on the corner of Garlands Rd and Rutherford St. The bridge at Ferry Rd end probably wasn’t built until the 1980s.Many babies were born at Nurse Turner’s nursing home at 28 Princes St. Her name was Jessie Turner and she was married to John Richard Turner. They had a house destroyed by fire in 1894 and they lived on this street a long time as they were still there were she died in 1931 and he died in 1945. Sadly they lost three sons in the first World War.This street runs from Garlands Rd where the bridge crosses the Heathcote River and ends at Ferry Rd just after the other bridge over the Heathcote River. The houses here cover most decades starting from 1890. Many empty sections. There are about 5 houses from 1890 and a couple are in terrible repair. At the Garland St end of the street there are businesses plus the cemetery and I know that there were complaints about smells in recent times but the factory responsible for the bad smells was at the back of the cemetery and was destroyed fire a couple of years ago. The houses are a real mix of well looked after to rundown dumps.