Mays Road in St Albans – formerly May’s Road. Named after George May (1831-1917). May’s Road first appears in the Star in 1882 when land there is advertised for sale. May, a carrier, is a resident of the street in 1890 when it first appears in street directories. He later farmed at Broadfield.
A small amount of information from the library website. There was an obituary for George May in 1917. He came to New Zealand in 1955 on a ship called Cashmere. He was a carrier before moving to Broadfields and Weedons. He was musical and sung in church choirs. I was amused to see that he was bankrupt in 1871. So many streets in Christchurch are named after men who went bankrupt. There was also a May’s Rd in North Canterbury. A large amount of information in Papers Past and in 1882 there were sections for sale. In 1885 there was an argument about the payment for the formation of the road as the Avon Road Board declined to pay for it. There were three names mentioned of people living on the street who also had streets named after them. Mrs Rountree, G W Bretts and Tomes family. In 1892 there were complaints about water lying on the sections because of a deficient drainage. I sidetracked a bit in December 1913 when a camp called May’s Camp was mentioned. It was set up at the beginning of December when a resident granted the strike committee use of a large paddock to use as a camp. On the 29th December 1913 the big marquee was taken down but a few men stayed on in small tents. I doublechecked that it was the same street as it seemed a strange place to have a camp for Lyttelton waterfront strikers. There was a school called Crofton Lea mentioned in the 1930s. Drainage issues seemed to be a problem in the 1930s. There was a further subdivision on the street on land that was owned by C G Dalley. There was a huge number of birth and death notices. There was a lot of information about bus routes as Mays Rd was a main route. Over the years there were several accidents especially on the corner of Mays Rd and Papanui Rd or Mays Rd and Rutland St. It was entries in 1981 that caught my attention as they were about 3 dome shaped houses that had been built on the street. Most entries involved complaints from the residents. The residents felt that the houses would damage the residential character of the street. They also said that such houses would attract younger owners and that they would disturb older residents.
There was about 130 houses on the street dating from 1905 to 2021 with a huge variety of styles. I couldn’t see the house from 1905 as it was on a back section. There were still some lovely older houses but there were also some ugly modern houses. The houses that interested me were the dome shaped houses as they were so different.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 