Richmond Hill Rd – Named by George Humphreys (1848-1934) after he purchased the land where this road was formed from the estate of Mary Ann Rule (1875- 1909) in 1909. In 1960 the council decided that “Richmond Avenue, Richmond Hill, Richmond Hill Road and Richmond Hill Avenue should become Richmond Hill Road, the official name of the Sumner Road”.

A reasonable amount of information from the library website but it doesn’t say why he named it Richmond Hill. A very steep hill and it starts on the flat down in Sumner where the bowling club is. The road splits here and there are houses in a valley. The houses looked nice but I would hate to live here as you get very little sun, The footpath was narrow and in very poor condition and I frequently had to go onto the road as the lamp posts took up most of the footpath. Wasn’t helped by cars parked on the footpath. There was one section that had no footpath which was dangerous as when walking back down I met lots of school children walking up the road. Mostly new houses on this road and they will be rebuilds as the originals would have been destroyed in the earthquakes. As you got near the top of the hill it was all new houses as the road had obviously been extended and new subdivisions created. Many ugly wooden houses especially the higher you got. I don’t know the name of the building material for the others but the houses are white. There was one Spanish looking house with orange tiled roof. Lots of windows because of the views. There was one huge house that I would loved to have got photos of as it was so grand but the owners were outside. Several security gates here. At least one house had a swimming pool and others possibly did as well. Some interesting letterboxes on the lower part of the road where the houses weren’t so grand. It was hard work walking here as the hill was steep and not having a decent footpath didn’t help.

I have now looked up Richmond Hill in my Gordon Ogilvie book and he has that it was named after a song called Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill by Irish Poet Leonard MacNally and the song is about Leonard’s wife.

There was also a schooner called Richmond that sailed in NZ waters.

Whiterock Lane – Named after Whiterock, a racehorse. The Greenwood family has been involved in training racehorses for nearly a century, and proposed naming the roads in the subdivision after racehorses owned and trained by the family. Named in 2010.

I wasn’t expecting that information from the library website. I was expecting the street to have been named after rocks in the area. New houses here and most are for sale. My map showed that I could join a walkway here but the developer has blocked the access. Again wooden houses that look like toilet blocks or campground cabins, Get the feeling that I don’t like the houses in this area. I love the wood but the designs are so ugly. Lots of flat roofs on this street and surrounding streets. Took of a house that was on the corner of Whiterock Lane and Richmond Hill Rd as it was such a strange design. Again great views from up here.

De Thier Lane – Named after Bret de Thier (1945-). De Thier was one of New Zealand’s most successful Finn-class yachtsmen. Walter de Thier (1883-1973) was his grandfather. First appears in street directories in 1996.

A bit of information on the library website and I have heard of Bret de Thier. My photo is taken from Richmond Hill Rd. Large modern houses on this street and it looks more like a driveway than a street so I didn’t fully walk it. Great views.

Oxenhope Rd – nothing on library website about this road. No houses on this road yet. Great views. Note I walked this in August 2019.

I found more information on-line from the minutes of the Hagley Ferrymead Community Board dated 16/03/2016 – Oxenhope Road – The Greenwoods lived at Moorehouse Manor in Oxenhope, Yorkshire.

Oxenhope is near Haworth and UK websites have the spelling of Moorhouse for the Manor. Note this Moorhouse is not connected to Moorhouse Ave. The Oxenhope Greenwood family have a Bronte connection.

Sanscrit Place – nothing on library website about this tiny street. I was only to get photos by the wee reserve as this was a busy street. Lots of children playing or returning home from school.

Teviotdale Way – Named after Teviotdale, the 25,000 acre sheep station in North Canterbury owned by the Greenwood family, notably George Dean Greenwood (1855-1932). Formed in stage one of the Greenwood Estate subdivision on Richmond Hill. Named in 2006.

A bit of information on the library website. This had brand new houses that were mostly wooden and looked like toilet blocks or holiday camp cabins.Lots of windows as the views are great. Considering the hill I climbed most of these houses managed to be on fairly flat sections. You could see the trig station from here.

Clifton Terrace – A cliffside settlement named for the cliffs when the hill was subdivided. Clifton Terrace is first mentioned in The Press in 1910 when land is advertised for sale there. First appears in street directories in 1910 as Clifton, running off Main Road Sumner.

A bit of information from the library website. Another street with great views, A mixture of old and new houses plus older houses awaiting repairs. I did chat to a couple of roofers who were working on a rebuild. In the garden of the house there was a spire sitting on the ground and they think that it was from the original house. I couldn’t get a decent photo of it. There was an interesting looking older house and I couldn’t get a decent photo of it but did manage a photo of tree house in the grounds of this house. New houses had lots of large windows.

Gordon Ogilvie’s book has the area of Clifton as being previously named Deans Head. A previous owner of much of the land was A J White.