Kete New Plymouth

Silver Street used to run between Powderham Street and Devon Street West, where the courthouse is today.

The name does not appear on the original 1841 town map, making it a relatively recent addition to the grid. It is thought to have been taken from an old thoroughfare in the borough of Saltash, Cornwall – with the majority of early European settlers to New Plymouth hailing from that part of England, their descendants often looked to those regions when naming roads later on.

The small block in between Silver and

Powderham Street was named after Powderham Castle, seat of the Earls of Devon. William Courtenay, the tenth earl, was governor of the Plymouth Company, formed in England in 1840 to facilitate migration from the counties of Devon and Cornwall to Taranaki.

Built in the 14^th century by Sir Philip Courtenay, great grandson of Edward I, Powderham Castle sits on the Exe estuary just outside Exeter. Its name (pronounced locally as “poteron”) comes from the Dutch word ‘polder’ and means “hamlet of the reclaimed marshland”.

The Courtenay family has a rich and colourful history,

There are not many roads in Taranaki named after local women, but whether Vera Road is named after an early female settler is lost to history. What is certain is that the road, about 3 kilometres north of Whangamomona off State Highway 43, was constructed in the late 1800s to provide access to farmland and played a short role in providing alternative access in and out of the valley via the Whanganui River.

The dream of early settlers was

Surveyor Frederic Carrington, who was contracted by the Plymouth Company to lay out New Plymouth’s streets, only borrowed the names of two English towns on his plans. Holsworthy Road was named after the birthplace of several settlers who arrived on the Amelia Thompson. But why Weymouth Street?

One theory is that James “Worser” Heberley was born in the Dorset town. Heberley had accompanied the German explorer Ernst Dieffenbach on his climb up Mount Taranaki on Christmas Day 1839, and probably met Carrington in Wellington. Another theory is that Carrington was

Courtenay Street was named after William Reginald Courtenay (1807-1888), one of the trustees of the Plymouth Company. His father, the tenth Earl of Devon, was governor of the company and William was known as Lord Courtenay until he took over the earldom. William studied law at Oxford and was the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Devon between 1841 and 1849. He married Lady Elizabeth Fortescue in 1830 and the couple had four children but their sons William and Hugh both died young, leaving youngest son Edward to become the