Bunyan Street in the suburb of Waltham, Christchurch

Bunyan St in Waltham – Named after John Bunyan (1628- 1688) Bunyan was an author who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress. One of the “poets and writers” streets of Sydenham, Addington and Waltham named by a committee of the Sydenham Borough Council on 19 January 1880. Bunyan Street is first mentioned in the Star in 1886 in a report of a meeting of the Sydenham Borough Council. First appears in street directories in 1913.A small amount of information from the library website. I haven’t read Pilgrim’s Progress since I was a teenager. Papers Past had the usual lots of birth and death notices. In September 1886 the street was declared a public street. Several entries for 1886 and it was all about a complaint from Robert Thomas. It started in June of that year after Robert Thomas had flood issues on his property. In November 1886 Robert Thomas claimed that the flood damage was caused by the uncleaned state of the drain and requesting £10 compensation. In December 1886 the Drainage Board refused to recognise liability for the damage caused by the stoppage of Jacksons Creek. At the end of 1886 the Drainage Board and the Sydenham Borough Council were blaming each other for the flooding issues. In 1911 sections were sold from the estate of the late Robert Thomas. In 1924 Bunyan St was included in a housing scheme for the city council. The saddest articles were in 1932 about Charles Bernard Robbins who along with another man died on a tramping club trip. Another man was injured and all three were school teachers. Charles Robbins was a teacher at Waltham School and it sounds like it was a huge funeral. They were all members of the Christchurch Tramping Club. Not exactly sure where this happened as one article said Mt Rosamund and another article said it was Mt Rolleston. I walked this street last Friday. Waltham Park is partly bordered by this street. A few older houses from 1910 onwards but most are from 2016. There is an entrance to the housing complex St Martins Green here and lots of building work happening here. I suspect if I went back in a couple of years that there wouldn’t be any older houses left on this street. Some of the older houses are in a reasonable condition. The street runs from Waltham Rd to Buffon St.