Severn Street in the suburb of St Albans, Christchurch

Severn Street in St Albans- formerly Severn’s Road Named after Joseph Samuel John Severn(1821?-1909).Severn was a baker who lived in Church Road (later Rutland Street).Among a number of streets laid out in 1910 by the owners, the Church Property Trustees, and later dedicated to the council. First appears in street directories in 1912. It was extended to Malvern Street in 1930. [Later developers of streets in the area mistakenly believed the street was named after the Severn River which runs through the city of Worcester, England.]A small amount of information from the library website. I couldn’t find much information on Papers Past. Mostly birth and death notices. In the 1930s there was mention of new properties built by Paynter and Hamilton Ltd. Joseph Severn purchased a block of land on the corner of Durham St and Kilmore St in 1873 and he ran a bakery and general store from this property. He already owned at least three properties in Christchurch which he rented out. In 1884 he had an accident and he broke a leg. He was described as a confused old man. He was born in Surry and he married Susannah Wallis in 1851. I couldn’t find out when he came to New Zealand but they weren’t in the UK census for 1851. John died 6th December 1909 aged 88 and his buried at Linwood. His wife Susannah died 16th January 1916 aged 87. There was only one family tree on the ancestry website and it doesn’t look like they had any children. I walked this street on Saturday morning and as I was walking it I assumed that it was named after the river and was going to write about seeing the Severn Bore. This is a lovely tree lined street and most of the houses here were built in 1910s and 1930s. A few were built in 1990s. Mostly wooden houses with nice gardens.