Kete New Plymouth

Opunake’s Aytoun Street dates from the town’s earliest days but was never quite as long as originally intended. Instead, it developed in three separate parts. One part later became Brennan Place.

It was named after Arthur Brennan. He was born in Manaia in 1891 and was one of Opunake’s most prominent businessmen between the wars. As a young man he worked in Wellington and Invercargill. He married, then returned to Taranaki to take over the Opunake Times newspaper, which his father had founded in 1894. Brennan also

Flight Place in Lower Vogeltown was named after Josiah Flight, a remarkable early Taranaki settler.

Born in Devonshire in 1800, Josiah was persuaded by an advertisement for the Plymouth Company to invest everything he had in the purchase of land shares in Taranaki. He arrived in New Zealand with his wife Sarah Anne, two-year old daughter Annie and a flock of twelve Southdown sheep on the Timandra in 1842.

Flight and his wife both kept diaries during their journey, which give fascinating insights into shipboard life – whale sightings, birthday celebrations, brutal seasickness and the inevitable squabbling between strangers forced

The reason this industrial street in the Waiwhakaiho Valley carries the name Constance remains elusive. Was it named after a migrant ship sailing from Plymouth to Adelaide in 1850? Did the location evoke an association with the city of Constance at the border between Germany and Switzerland? Could it be that New Plymouth residents wished to commemorate non-British royalty, for example, Queen Constance of Sicily?

More likely, however, is that it was the choice of the land owner, well-known New Plymouth lawyer Robert Clinton Hughes. We know

Whalers Rise is a short cul-de-sac near the junction of Barrett Road and Omata Road. The street was formed in the 1990s, however its name has links to the area’s first European settlers. Like Barrett Road, named after the famous early whaler Dicky Barrett, it is located in the suburb of Whalers Gate, which has been known by this name for close to 160 years.

The origins of the name Whalers Gate are somewhat unclear but there are references to a location around the area of the

2019 View: By Hamish Crimp

This building was constructed in 1892 as the Urenui Town Hall - It served this purpose until 1991 when a new community centre was constructed.

A concert and dance was held on the night of July 7th 1892 to celebrate the opening of the hall.

In 1981 the Clifton County Council purchased the hall from the Urenui Hall Society for use as a community centre, however it was