Hewitts Road in the suburb of Merivale, Christchurch

Hewitts Road in Merivale – Named after James Hewitt (1838-1919). Hewitt bought six acres in Papanui Road in 1872, part of Rural Section 52, from John Toft Wingfield. Hewitt’s Road was developed through this land in 1875. First mentioned in the Star in 1884 when a house is advertised for sale there. First appears in street directories in 1887.

A small amount of information from the library website and I found an entry as early as 1874 in Papers Past. It was a request from the residents to the Road Board asking for the road to be formed. In 1875 the Road Board had ads regarding tenders for forming the road. Note whenever the Road Board mentions forming a road it frequently meant metalling an existing dirt road. There were sections for sale in 1878 but most ads for sections were in1880. There had been complaints about the pigs on the property of Samuel Dennis and in 1878 it was reported that he no longer had any pigs. I was therefore amused to find complaints about him in 1900 for keeping poultry on his property. Many of the ads for sections and houses on this street said that it was the driest and healthiest suburb in Christchurch. Christchurch had a huge problems with illnesses and deaths from diseases caused by stagnant water. From 1879 onwards there were several ads for The Mrs Barnett’s Preparatory School at her residence Clissold. I will now have to go back and walk Clissold St. This property was for sale in 1916 and 1918 and it sounded like a huge property. It was described as a grand old home known as Clissold and had extensive gardens with fruit trees. More complaints in 1906 and this time it was about the smell from the sewers plus the state of the footpaths and street from the cows that were driven along the street. Rangi Ruru School moved to this street in 1923 and this school had been established in 1889. There had been a reserve on this street and in 1946 this land was sold to Rangi Ruru School. Not everyone was happy about this.

I couldn’t see any evidence that James Hewitt actually lived on this street as she lived on Park Terrace. I was surprised that I couldn’t find an obituary for him.

I walked this street today after visiting the school. The school takes up a big part of the street and it has a mixture of new and old buildings. The houses here range from 1890s to 2022s. The 1990s and 2015 to 2017 saw most of the houses being built on this street. I couldn’t find street view from before 2012 which is unusual. There are still some lovely older houses here but the one from 1900 is in a very sad state. There was another house in a fairly bad state but I couldn’t get a good look at it. It is still occupied which was a surprise. I wouldn’t be surprised if the house from 1890 is eventually demolished which would be sad as it looked OKish. The modern houses ranged from OK to ugly. It was a pleasant street but probably beyond my budget plus parking would be terrible during the week.