Bulkeley Terrace

Bulkeley Terrace runs between Morley and Weymouth Streets, overlooking Kawaroa Park. It was drawn up by Frederic Carrington on his earliest plans of the new town and named after Captain Charles Bulkeley, a director of the Plymouth Company.

The railway line was extended from New Plymouth to the harbour in the 1880s and the main goods station located on Bulkeley Terrace. Living in the cottages next to the tracks could prove hazardous as well as noisy – sparks from passing trains often caused nearby grass to catch fire.

Street lamps were installed in 1903 after years of requests from residents concerned that people were falling in the dark into a small lake that had formed at the eastern end of the road, used by locals for fishing.

Complaints were also made about the state of the road itself, which was finally metalled in 1911 at a cost of £100. The western end of the street remained an industrial area, however, home over the years to a public pound for trespassing cattle, a coal yard and a timber factory. In 2012 the site was cleared for more housing.

Charles Bulkeley (1800-1861) hailed from a long line of seafarers. His great grandfather John Bulkeley was also an officer in the Royal Navy. John’s ship, the HMS Wager, was wrecked off the coast of Chile in 1741 and the survivors marooned on a desolate island. After five desperate months the starving crew, reduced to eating seaweed, mutinied.

One group, led by John Bulkeley, took to small boats with the aim of sailing around Cape Horn and along the east coast of South America back to England. Captain David Cheap remained on the island with the rest. Only six members of Bulkeley’s group and four of Cheap’s men – out of an original crew of 160 – eventually made it home and Bulkeley’s account of his incredible survival became a bestseller.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.