Vickerys Road in the suburb of Wigram, Christchurch

Vickerys Road in Wigram – formerly Vickery’s Road. Named after John Vickery (1815?- 1893). Vickery emigrated, under engagement to John Shand, on the Isabella Hercus in 1851. He became a land owner and farmer at Riccarton and Sockburn. He died at his property, Hendley Farm, Upper Riccarton. Tenders were invited by the Spreydon Road Boad for the formation of Vickery’s Road in 1875. Information supplied in 2008 by a descendant, Joan Parke of Sydenham, in an interview with Richard Greenaway.

A reasonable of information from the library website. Considering how old this street is I was surprised at how little information there was on Papers Past. In 1887 there was a complaint about a stagnant water hole in the street. In 1896 a drain was cut in the road. Fast forward to 1961 and this street was flooded along with nearby streets. There was an interesting letter to the editor from J M Smalley who said that he had lived in the area for 74 years. He blamed the flooding on the new bridge and that the engineers had ignored the two old natural water courses in the area when they built the bridge. The street is frequently mentioned in connection with Lady Wigram races as part of the street is closed off during the races. In 1976 a new factory owned by J G Rutherford was opened by Robert Muldoon.

I got slightly sidetracked when researching this street as John Vickery’s will was contested by one of his daughters. It got very messy. John had 10 children but by the time of his death only his wife and the two youngest sons were on speaking terms with him.

This street is half residential and half industrial plus it borders Wigram Airforce Base. The industrial part includes a crematorium. There isn’t a footpath in the industrial part of the street but I was able to walk on the grass verge. Lots of big trucks parked here. The houses in the residential part range from being built in 1910 through to 2020. There were several houses dating between 1910 and 1930 and a couple looked quite nice but most were looking rundown. Many of the houses were on huge sections. I would just like to state that I would not like to live on this street and it is to do with the occupants of one of the houses. It was one of the houses dating from 1910 and is probably in reasonable condition. It had high fences and security cameras. I was tempted to wave at the security cameras but that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.