Severn Place

Severn Place runs off South Road in Spotswood, opposite Barrett Road. It was formed in 1967 and named after Severn Place in the original Plymouth in England.

That Severn Place was of course named after the famous river, at 354 kilometres the longest waterway in Great Britain. It originates in the Cambrian Mountains in the north of Wales and flows in a semicircle all the way to the Bristol Channel, the Celtic Sea and from there into the Atlantic.

Some historians claim the name of the river comes from Sabrinā, a legendary Celtic princess. The Welsh know it as the Hafren, meaning “boundary”, forming as it does a natural border between England and Wales. It is a well-travelled border, however, spanned by 107 bridges.

The river was always an important trade artery, transporting everything from alcohol to coal, and has been referenced in poems, stories and music for centuries. In Shakespeare’s play Henry IV Part I the character Henry Percy recalls a terrible battle between the English and the Welsh upon the banks of the Severn, claiming the waters "ran fearfully among the trembling reeds… bloodstained with these valiant combatants."

New Zealand has its own Severn River, located in Marlborough. It is one of the major tributaries of the Acheron with its source in the Raglan Range, flowing south about 25 kilometres through Molesworth.

Severn Place is one of at least ten other streets around New Zealand named after the river. But New Plymouth’s quiet cul-de-sac was the only one honoured with an award for Best Street in 1978. Sponsored by the Taranaki Herald newspaper and the New Plymouth Public Relations Office, the competition also selected the best commercial frontage and best garden in town. The judges that year declared Severn Place to be “most attractive” and admitted that “it was difficult to find any fault with it”. Evelyn Place in Welbourn and Turakina Street in Merrilands also came highly commended.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.