David Street

David Sole was one of two brothers who lived in an area of Westown which was once called Soleville. Using the christian name for the street distinguished him from his brother James. David Sole was 19 when he arrived on the Oriental with his family in 1841. The family home was on the corner of Edgecombe and Aubrey streets. It was around the early 1850s that David and his brother were granted 25 acres each and Soleville was established.

Soleville covered most of the area where the Taranaki Base Hospital is and included land surrounding David Street. Many of David's family members lived in the area and a tram shelter on the corner of David and Tukapa Streets was a popular conversation place for the Soles through to the 1940s.

Soleville has been described as idyllic, yet there were hard times for the families; a retreat to Nelson during the land wars, insurance claims for lost cattle and accounts of frugal living. David's sister-in-law, another Soleville resident, talked of 'fruit pie' made from the tops of ferns cut into small pieces and mixed with vinegar, sugar and cloves, "…even ladies used to have nothing but bread and lard for tea sometimes".

Still, Soleville was said to be a very peaceful and quiet place "cows grazed in the fields and there was an apple orchard where the neighbourhood children talked and read and played hide and seek". You can read more about the Soles in From the Marshes to the Mountain by Fay Clark.

Despite a bout of dysentery that kept David out of military service for two weeks, he was for the most part in excellent health and he died in his sleep in 1915, just before his 93rd birthday. His wife Martha died in 1898 and they are buried together in Te Hēnui cemetery.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.