Leitch St in Somerfield – Probably named after Daniel Leitch. Leitch was living at nearby 49 Wordsworth Street in 1904. First mentioned in The Press in 1880. In the Star in 1900 it is described as a “continuation of Smollett Street”. First appears in street directories in 1909.
A small amount of information from the library website and if it was named after a person there is usually an s on the end of the street name. Wordsworth St isn’t exactly nearby either but I couldn’t find any information about the street name. It was only one ad in 1900 that claimed Leitch St to be a continuation of Smollett St plus someone in 1919 argued that the name of the street should be changed to Smollett St because it was a continuation of that street. Papers Past mostly had birth and death notices but 1953 there was a brief mention of a resident on this street being a survivor of the Tangiwai train disaster. In 1880 there were several ads for the sale of 70 sections with frontages to Leitch St and Dunn St and that these streets would thus connect Colombo St South via Smollett St to Selwyn St. The difference in how long it would now take to travel to the Selwyn St area was mentioned as it would reduce the travelling time. More sections were available in 1900 and 1923. I couldn’t find out the name of the original landowner who was selling the sections in 1880. The shop on the corner of Strickland St and Leitch St was damaged by a suspicious fire in 1986. There is still a business here and it is now a hairdresser.
Over a quarter of the houses on this street were built between 1900 and 1920 and the one from 1900 is built from brick which is unusual so I suspect that it has been recladded but I could be wrong. These older houses are disappearing fast and being demolished by developers who are putting up ugly modern houses which are totally out of keeping with the lovely older houses on this street. There are also a lot of houses built in the 1980s and many of these are on back sections. There was one house that was a mess and it is rather obvious that a hoarder lives here.
Edited to say that I have solved the mystery of Daniel Leitch as his name was Daniel Leach and he lived on Lower Windmill Rd aka Antigua St but then moved to 49 Wordsworth St. The ancestry website have a few entries with the Leitch spelling but most entries including UK records have the Leach spelling.
Ignore my previous edit as the street is more likely to have been named after Charles Leitch who lived on South Christchurch Rd AKA Old Christchurch Rd which eventually because Strickland St. Charles Leitch had a connection with Robert Dunn who Dunn St is named after. There doesn’t seem to be a connection between Charles Leitch and Daniel Leitch AKA Daniel Leach but information on the Ancestry website is a bit sketchy.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 