Parrs Road

Parrs Road is on your left as you drive up Frankley Road toward the mountain. It was once part of the Taranaki County Council catchment, but is now part of the New Plymouth District.  

On 11 September 1962 the Taranaki County Council passed a Special Order which formally designated names for a long list of roads. In some cases the change formalised common local usage and for others names were attached to unnamed stretches of road.

Parrs Road was included in this Special Order, ratifying a name that had probably been in use unofficially for a number of years. Although the council documentation does not explain the origin of the name, it seems safe to assume that it was named after a local landowner.   

A search of electoral rolls and early survey maps throws up the name of William Henry Parr. William was born in St. Breward, Cornwall in 1868 and married Henrietta Brown in 1890. The couple and their four children emigrated from England in 1911, sailing aboard the S.S.Arawa.

In 1914 William and Henrietta were listed on the local electoral roll as living on Wallath Road in Westown. The 1922 electoral roll listed William as a farmer on Frankley Road.  A map from 1927 shows the location of their house not on Frankley Road, but on a short un-named road leading off Frankley Road. This is the stretch of road that would finally be named after the family that spent so long in the area.  

William died in 1935, aged 66. It appears Henrietta stayed on the farm for a number of years before moving into town – she died in 1957, aged 86.

Related plan:

Taranaki SO7400 Sheet 1, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)