Plymouth Road runs off Surf Highway 45 between Ōmata and Ōākura. It was named after the city of Plymouth in Devon, as was the Plymouth Company which first brought Pākehā settlers from England’s southwest counties to Taranaki in 1841.
Charles Hursthouse, in his 1848 book An Account of the Settlement of New Plymouth in New Zealand, wrote that “there is scarcely any human act so important in its consequences as that of emigration”. No doubt the 920 pioneers who arrived on the first six Plymouth Company ships would have agreed.
As well as Hursthouse’s writings, lectures were given to prospective migrants around England on behalf of the Company and various publications promoting life in Taranaki produced, with advertising sometimes veering into outright propaganda.
An article published in the Illustrated London News in 1851 provided an account of life in New Plymouth from somebody who had apparently lived here. It was claimed that “the district would, in addition to supporting the present small population residing on it… provide food for more than a million… human beings. The flax alone growing on it would provide employment for many thousand[s]… only capital, enterprise and industry are required to render the district the granary of the Australasian colonies… [and] our millions of tons of iron sand will, I imagine, be turned to account at some future period, when New Plymouth will become the Sheffield or Birmingham of New Zealand”. The article added confidently that families “who will work and keep clear of public-houses, may enjoy there a happy home, with plenty of bread and butter, even Devonshire cream”.
The old Plymouth was originally situated on a small peninsula at the mouth of the river Plym (meaning ‘plum’ in Saxon English), hence its name. Interestingly, settlers chose not to rechristen any of the rivers they found here in Taranaki after those back home, opting to keep Māori names like Huatoki and Waiwhakaiho instead.
Previously made of clay, Plymouth Road was finally metalled all the way to its junction with Carrington Road in 1936, using crushed stone taken from Kiri Stream. The Taranaki Daily News reported that the improvements would open up “this extensive block of country” and provide “a number of interesting circular drives from New Plymouth”.
This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.
Related Documents
Taranaki DP3451 Plymouth Road (1917) - ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)
Please do not reproduce these images without permission from Puke Ariki.
Contact us for more information or you can order images online here.
The information on this website is provided for general research and reference only. While we try to keep content accurate and current, we make no guarantees about its completeness or correctness. It should not be considered a replacement for a LIM or a Property Report. Some content is supplied by third parties. Puke Ariki has not verified this content and users should check its accuracy before relying on it.The inclusion of a building on the website does not imply heritage status. See SCHED1 in the NPDC District Plan for a list of buildings that have rules about what can happen to or around them (administered by NPDC). See the New Zealand Heritage List for a list of buildings that are celebrated for their heritage significance but are not subject to rules (administered by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga). Should any corrections need to be made to the records or for more information please contact us.
