Crompton Road (Alton)

In Alton it is commonly believed that Crompton Road is named after the Crompton family who lived in nearby Hurleyville for many years. It’s not true.

Crompton Road, probably named in the 1870s, was originally intended to connect Ball Road to Upper Manutahi Road. It is named after William Morgan Crompton. He arrived in New Zealand in 1852 and was for a brief time the editor of the Taranaki Herald. Elected to the first New Zealand Parliament, he only had a short parliamentary career, but was later a member of the Taranaki Provincial Council. This, and his role on the Taranaki Waste Lands Board, meant he had a significant say in the naming of several towns in Taranaki.

A literary man, Crompton was keen on writers. He unsuccessfully suggested Milton for Inglewood. When Stratford was founded, he suggested the name Stratford-upon-Patea, after the birthplace of Shakespeare. Before long, the town was more simply known as Stratford.

William Crompton died in 1886. The story of the Crompton family of Hurleyville, and the so-called ‘Penny Board’, is much more significant in the history of the Alton district.

A book about Alton, called ‘The History of a Settlement’, relates their story. Less than two weeks after World War One was declared, James, David and Fred Crompton, and a friend, all enlisted together. They were the first men in the district to volunteer. On the day they left for their training camp, they rode their horses from Hurleyville to the Ball Road railway station. Passing the Alton Hotel, they stopped, tied their horses to a fence and went into the hotel. There, they had a pint and put a penny on the bar. Later, the penny was stamped with their initials and placed in a hole, carved into the bar by the publican.

It created a tradition. Subsequently, each man who left Alton for service in the First and Second World Wars and called into the Alton Hotel for his last pint, had a penny stamped and carved into the bar.

When the hotel closed in 2011, the section of the bar, with the pennies still in place, was removed and framed. Now known as the Soldiers’ Penny Board, it hangs in the Alton Coronation Hall.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related plans:

Taranaki DP2819 Sheet 1 Crompton Road, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP4137 Sheet 1 Crompton Road, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP4138 Sheet 1 Crompton Road, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)