Hardwicke Street in the suburb of Sumner, Christchurch

Hardwicke Street in Sumner -Land in Hardwicke Street in the “Township of Wakefield, Sumner Bay” is advertised for sale in the Star in 1880.

A tiny amount of the information from the library website. I couldn’t find anyone with the surname Hardwicke living in Sumner. It was fairly common for many people owning land in Sumner to live elsewhere. There was a family with that surname living in Lyttelton and it is possible that it is named after that family.

Not a huge amount of information on Papers Past. There were sections for sale in 1878 and 1880 with another lot of sections available in 1912. In 1884 the street was to be clayed and when they were doing the work a skeleton was found in a sandhill. In 1901 drainage work and septic tank were mentioned. In 1915 the Sumner Presbyterian Church was erected and in 1927 the Sunday School Hall was built. In 1916 a survivor of the Marquette wrote to his sister who lived on the street.

There was a very sad story in 1926 where a woman killed her baby son. Most headlines said demented mother. The baby was only a few weeks old and it sounds like the mother was struggling after the birth. She tried killing herself by running into the sea. She was acquitted of murder and detained at Sunnyside. Sounds like parents stayed married and they are buried together.

In 1933 the Sumner branch of the WEA was mentioned. After this date there wasn’t many entries on Papers Past. In 1983 there were pensioner cottages to be built on the corner of Hardwicke Street and Wiggins Street and they have a Wiggins Street address. In 1982 the church was called Union Church Hall and it is now the Anglican Church and the address is now Nayland Street. The Anglican Church moved here after the earthquakes. I couldn’t find out when the Presbyterian church moved to Redcliffs.

There were lots of ads for holiday lets for houses on this street. Sumner was a popular holiday destination and frequently featured in the social news.

I walked this street in September last year and was another one where my photos were still on my phone and I hadn’t transferred to my laptop. It is a lovely street and at least half the houses are dated between 1905 and 1920. The school is partly on this street but it has a Colenso Street address.