Robson St (Normanby)

Robson Street in Normanby is named after two sawmilling brothers, James and Thomas Robson, who were among the many men who arrived in South Taranaki during the 1880s to clear the region of its immense forests.

The brothers were born in Greenridge, Northumberland, Thomas in 1839 and James in 1842, they were the sons of Roger and Mary (nee Charlton) Robson. Two of eight siblings, their mother died when they were in their early teens. Both brothers emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1860s, initially trying their luck in the Otago goldfields before turning to sawmilling.

James was working in the Hutt Valley when he met his future wife Mere Ngamai o te Wharepouri (Mary Harrison) who was in the area to meet with her brother John, also a sawmiller.

Mere was born on Kapiti Island, the daughter of a whaler, James Harrison, and Mere Kapa Ngawai (Mereana Ngamai), who herself was the daughter of Rawiri Kowheta (also known as Rawiri Motutere).

James and Mere married at St Peter’s Church in Wellington in 1865. Just over a decade later, they moved to Normanby with Thomas and established the town’s first sawmill on Austin Road, primarily milling mataī.

The Robson’s spent the next decade in the Normanby area as the town grew, close to the former settlement of Ketemarae and the many pā in the area.

Thomas Robson was one of the founding members of the Normanby Horticultural Society, which was the first of its kind in the North Island and the first to be affiliated with the Royal Horticultural Society. Its original purpose was to encourage landowners to grow greater qualities of fruit and vegetables and try new varieties of potatoes.

Around 1884, James, Mere, their nine children, and Thomas relocated to Ngaere, where they had secured rights to fell a 930,000-hectare block of rimu in the Bird Road/Skinner Road area—the block was reputed to contain some of the finest rimu in the district.

James and Mere bought a block of land just south of the Ngaere Gardens and built both the mill and a large home here. The Robsons later subdivided this land, donating a portion to the district for the construction of a public hall and supplying the timber at a reduced cost. That hall still stands today.

Meanwhile, Thomas lived further inland on what was then known as Robson Road in Pukengahu. This road was created to access timber from the Bird Road/Skinner Road block. It appears that Robson Road has since been incorporated into the eastern end of Bird Road, as it no longer exists under its original name.

By 1903, the Robsons had sold the mill, and James and Mere moved to Stratford, where they built an impressive home named Whitiora at 25 Brecon Road—another building that still stands. In 1914, James sold his extensive 640-acre estate in the Pukengahu district.

Thomas remained in Pukengahu until 1915, when he announced plans to leave the district to grow oranges in California. Whether he fulfilled that dream is unclear, but he eventually retired to Normanby, where he married Ellen Eagles, a local bakery owner and widow. Ellen passed away in 1920, and Thomas died in 1931 at the age of 91.

Many of James and Mere’s children became well known; including Mary Rachel Robson who was a noted horsewoman, dancer and musician and married historian and author Harry Stowell (Hare Hongi).  Agnes was a noted pianist and their youngest son, Archibald Carlyle Robson was killed at the Somme during World War Two aged 33.

His brother-in-law Harry Stowell composed a poem for his brother-in-law which celebrated Archie’s love for the south Taranaki landscape.

James died in New Plymouth in 1932 at the age of 90. Mere had passed away eight years earlier, in 1924.

Documents

Pioneer Brothers, Taranaki Daily News 27 July 1926

A Pioneer Sawmiller, 

Books

Centennial History of Hawera and the Waimate Plains, CJ Roberts, p.269, 274, 277-278

The Ngaere Story, Alison Robinson

Te Moa: 100 years history of the Inglewood community, RW Brown

A Place called Pukengahu, Judy Best, p.5, 8