Word on the street: Denby Road, Ha¯ wera

While little information remains about the man Ha¯wera’s Denby Rd was named after, there is plenty of evidence of the road’s changing layout.

The road was named after a Corporal Joseph Denby of Number 9 Company, Taranaki Military Settlers, who was allotted a section of land, at what was then the end of Denby Rd, next to the Waihi Stream.

Some of the military settlers did not take up their land allotments, or only farmed for a period of time, before moving on. It is not clear how long Joseph Denby farmed his land, but his name was associated with the land long enough for the road to be named after him.

However, the name is one of the few things connected with this road to remain constant. It appears the original Denby Rd ran parallel to the coastline, from Fairfield Rd to the Waihi Stream.

It is unclear when this part of the road became a paper road, but it remained so until recently when the South Taranaki District Council used it to create the new extension to the popular Denby Road Pathway route.

In addition, the current first section of Denby Rd starting at South Rd was for many years alternatively marked on maps as Waihi Rd and sometimes as Denby Rd, prompting at least one irate Ha¯wera resident to complain in the local paper in 1923 about the conflicting references to the road.

The road layout had one final and permanent change in 1922 when local landowner Rhoda Pease donated land to provide a public reserve at Waihi Beach. The Ha¯wera County Council had been wanting to improve public access to the beach, the closest to the town, so the road was improved and extended to include access out to the beach and the new reserve.

Today Denby Rd, with the recent completion of the Denby Road Pathway, provides access from the town to the beach by car, bike and foot.

Contributed by the Taranaki Research Centre I Te Pua Wa¯nanga o Taranaki at Puke Ariki.