Simons Street

The naming of this street appears to be linked to a business partnership or friendship forged almost a century ago by developer Robert Scott, a local businessman and farmer.

The original plans for this Moturoa subdivision probably date back as far as 1919. Known as the Port View development, it appears as an insert on a 1931 Lands and Survey cadastral map.

After the failure of ambitious expansion plans for the port, progress on the subdivision lapsed for nearly 40 years. When, in the late 1950s, development began, the New Plymouth City Council accepted the suggestion from Mr Scott's daughter, Mrs Delicich, to use the street names from the original plans.

It is thought that Simons Street is named after Thomas Vincent Simons. He was born in England in 1868, the third of 13 children born to Charles and Ann Simons. The family sailed to New Zealand in the early 1870s, eventually settling on a farm in the Inglewood district.

Simons married twice and had eight children. After farming in the Midhirst area for many years, he set up his first sawmill on Tariki Road. When this closed, he moved to another on Carrington Road, before retiring to New Plymouth.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to establish any clear link between Scott and Simons. There is some suggestion they were partners in one of the sawmills. It could also be that, as they were of a similar age, they were just good friends.

Simons died in 1948, aged 79. His obituary records that he had a keen interest in the Taranaki oilfields. He would, therefore, be pleased to know the road that bears his name was the site of the only well (Spotswood 1) drilled by the short-lived New Plymouth (NZ) Oil Wells Ltd in 1931.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.