Conway Road sign (2020). Mike Gooch. Word on the street image collection.
Conway Road sign (2020). Mike Gooch. Word on the street image collection.
Conway Road was marked out as part of the original Eltham town plan in 1884.
The dip in the road where it runs past today’s swimming baths was once known as ‘Pig’s gully’. Sometimes wild pigs were trapped and shot there. In about 1882 mill workers in the area built a bridge over the stream.
As access to the town improved, Eltham’s population expanded beyond the initial town limits. The western end of the road was surveyed for housing in the 1890s. By 1906 land was being surveyed to the east, including Ladys Mile.
The western end of Conway Road was metalled in 1901. Eltham’s school had been built facing High Street in the mid-1880s. The main road was increasingly busy so when new classrooms were needed in the 1920s, they were built facing Conway Road. The new school’s gates were designed as the town’s long-awaited war memorial.
The origin of the name Conway Road is a mystery. The best guess is that it was named after a street in the surveyor’s old home town in Great Britain.
This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.
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