Mabey Street sign (2020). Mike Gooch. Word on the Street image collection.
Mabey Street sign (2020). Mike Gooch. Word on the Street image collection.
Mabey Street in Eltham is named after Thomas Croom Mabey and his wife Jane.
Born near Wellington, Thomas Mabey was a butcher in Normanby. In the early 1890s, he and Jane bought over 70 hectares of land on the northern edge of Eltham and began farming there.
At the time, that area of Eltham was known as Chislehurst. The flat land there was attractive to the many horse racing enthusiasts in the town. In 1894 financial terms were agreed with the Mabeys and a racecourse was laid out in the area.
The venue was popular and so well administered by the local committee that, on several occasions, an application was made to government for an on-track betting licence. Had it been granted, the area around Mabey Street may have been very different today.
Thomas Mabey was highly regarded by his fellow citizens. Most notably, in his role as a director of the co-operative Eltham Diary Company.
The farm in Chislehurst was one of several the Mabeys would buy and successfully operate. In 1903 they leased the farm and bought another on the outskirts of Tauranga. A farewell function was organized to acknowledge their contribution to the Eltham district.
They retired to Tauranga in the 1920s. Jane Mabey died in 1929 and Thomas in 1931, aged 84.
This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.
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