Windsor Road (Inglewood)

Windsor Road is a semi-rural thoroughfare on the outskirts of Inglewood. It runs north from Dudley Road towards Inglewood but as you enter the town the name of the road changes to Miro Street.

It was not always like this. Early survey maps indicate that Windsor Road once ran all the way through to Rata Street (now State Highway 3). It is not known exactly when or why the name of the top section of the road closest to town changed, but a search of local newspapers indicates this was probably in the early 1900s.

It appears likely that the naming of Windsor Road was a nod to the historic town of Windsor in Berkshire, England. Settled for more than 1000 years, the town is best known for Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal family.

New Plymouth did have an early settler named Frederick Windsor who opened the Windsor Castle Hotel in Bulteel Street in 1858, however there is no evidence that he ever lived in Inglewood or owned land there.

In more recent times an Inglewood walkway and a local café have adopted the name. In 2010 the first stage of the Windsor Walkway, a 4.5 km loop track was opened, followed by stage 2 in 2011. Such was the popularity of the multi-purpose track that in 2013 the owners of the well-known Macfarlanes Café decided to rename their business Caffe Windsor.

2024 saw a $1.5 million upgrade of the track and a name change to the Kurapete Windsor Walkway. The all-weather exercise trail was officially opened on 19 October 2024.

Much larger celebrations were held in January 2025 when Inglewood celebrated the town's 150^th jubilee. The weekend of 25-26 January witnessed a full programme of events (unfortunately weather affected on Sunday) including the unveiling of an anniversary plaque and a jubilee parade. As part of the festivities, the Town Hall was transformed into a view of old Inglewood.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related plans:

Taranaki SO7416 Sheet 1, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Detail from Egmont Crown Grant Record Map, Archives New Zealand