Bard St in Somerfield – formerly Grey Street. Grey Street first appears in street directories in 1941. Re-named Bard Street on 1 September 1948 when 120 streets were renamed.
A tiny amount of information from the library website. It was almost impossible to find out information about Grey St as there was thousands of entries on Papers Past. Even limiting my search to 4 newspapers there was thousands of entries. In June 1948 Grey St was to be changed to Hurley St but in August 1948 there was an amendment and it was to be called Bard St. My best guess for the name is to do with William Shakespeare. A few death notices and engagement notices. There was an entry about a fisherman drowning at the Rakaia River Mouth in 1966. The companion of the fisherman lived on Bard St. The fisherman was swept away by a freak wave and his companion tried to save him but he was then knocked over by a wave. The article mentions recovering the body plus rescuing the companion. I remember this event and I certainly remember the name of the rescuer. My family had a bach at the North Rakaia Huts and I would have been only 11 years old when this event happened.
I walked this street on Sunday and I didn’t like the street. Most houses were built in the 1940s and at least two of them are still State Houses / Housing Corp houses. I thought that more of them would have been State Houses but the Housing New Zealand website list has only two of them. No photos for this street and I didn’t feel comfortable or safe here.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 