Hurworth Road

Hurworth Road is located on the southern outskirts of New Plymouth and links Carrington and Frankley roads. The surrounding district is also known as Hurworth, and this is how the road got its name.

In the early 1850s brothers Harry and Arthur Atkinson arrived in Taranaki and purchased 200 acres in what was known as the Grey Block. They named their farm ‘Hurworth’ after the area in Durham where Arthur was born. Harry Atkinson, later to serve as premier of New Zealand on four separate occasions, built Hurworth Cottage for his family and it is now registered as a Category 1 historic place with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.  

Hurworth Road was surveyed in 1912 and the plan approved by surveyor George Henry Bullard in May the following year. In August 1914, following the monthly meeting of the Taranaki County Council, it was announced that “seeing that there is already an Atkinson Road, it was decided to name the new Carrington cross-road the ‘Hurworth Road’”.

Already located on the road, although previously accessed from Frankley Road, was a dairy factory. The Frankley Road Company was formed in 1896 and produced 18 tons of butter in its first year. The company reported a significant increase in suppliers from 1914 onward, perhaps a consequence of the formation of Hurworth Road. The factory closed in 1967 after amalgamation with the Bell Block Company and the building has since been transformed into a private residence.

The heartbeat of many rural communities was, and in some cases still is, the local hall. At a meeting of Hurworth residents in June 1922, a decision was made to build a hall on land donated by William Adlam. The section, on the corner of Carrington and Hurworth Roads, had once belonged to the Harry Atkinson. Officially opened on 19 April 1923, the hall hosted dances, engagement parties, birthday celebrations and games nights for the next 85 years.

In 2008 the hall was destroyed in an arson attack, and the Hurworth Hall Society made the decision not to rebuild. The section was eventually sold with the proceeds distributed to local charities as well as helping fund Vicki Price’s excellent 2014 book, Memories of Hurworth District.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

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