Forth Street in the suburb of Richmond, Christchurch

Forth Street in Richmond – Probably named after the River Forth in Scotland. First mentioned in street directories in 1902 with a see ref. to Stanmore Road. First mentioned in the Star in 1904 in an advertisement. Not listed in street directories with residents until 1905.

A small amount of information on the library website. There were so many streets in New Zealand with this same street name.

So many entries on Papers Past that I eventually only searched articles which is a pity as ads can often give great information about streets. In 1902 it was described as a new street. Mostly death notices with a few birth notices and during World War I there were ballot notices and roll of honour mentions.

In the 1920s and 1930s there were several birth notices where babies had been born at Nurse Bunn’s house. Elizabeth Bunn died in January 1940. Her mother had died in 1935 aged 82 and her father had died in 1931 aged 80. They had all lived at the same address.

After this date apart from a few death notices there is practically no mention of this street. In 1988 a stolen car used by men who had robbed the nearby supermarket was dumped in the street.

There are still a few older houses left on the street and I managed to get a photo of one of the houses dating from 1910. I wish that I could have managed a photo of the 1905 house but it was hidden behind lots of trees. Most of the houses were built between 1970 and 1990 with a few built more recently.

I actually walked this street back in October and I had been at a Heritage Festival open house at Avebury House. I walked through a walkway to get to this street. Near the walkway entrance on this street there is a painted powerbox. I love street art. I was verbally abused by a local here. He was parked blocking the footpath and I was trying to get a photo of the powerbox. I hadn’t even said anything to him about his parking when he started abusing me. I obviously replied and pointed out that the yellow lines means no parking plus it is a footpath. Apparently the fact that he lives nearby means he is allowed to park on the footpath. Yes I possibly then called him an idiot with an extra adjective attached to the word idiot. Sometimes I have extra fun when out walking.

The newer houses are ugly and the ones from the 1970s and 1980s are nothing startling. One modern place looked more interesting and it would have been built by the developer who does the nicer looking modern places. For some reason one of the older houses had an old red telephone box in the backyard.