Glenside is a suburb of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand. It is bounded by Tawa to the North,

Churton Park Churton Park is an affluent suburb 1.5 km north of Johnsonville in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It was established in the 1970s. The suburb includes Churton Park Reserve which includes a recreational sports field, two prim ...

to the West/South and

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

across the

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

to the East. Glenside was first settled in 1840.

Ngāti Toa Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Toarangatira or Ngāti Toa Rangatira, is a Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) based in the southern North Island and in the northern South Island of New Zealand. Its ''rohe'' (tribal area) extends from Whanganui in the north, Palmerston N ...

are the

mana whenua In New Zealand, tangata whenua () is a Māori term that literally means "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people as a whole. Etymology Accordi ...

. The area was known as "The Halfway" from 1840 until 1928.

Transport

Middleton Road was part of the 19th-century

Old Porirua Road The Old Porirua Road in the 19th century was the main road north up the west coast from Wellington to Porirua in New Zealand. It ran from Kaiwarra (now Kaiwharawhara) up the Ngaio Gorge to Ngaio (then called Crofton), Khandallah, Johnsonville an ...

north from Wellington. Public transport is provided by No 60 and No 60e Metlink buses from Wellington via Johnsonville which run down Middleton Road to Tawa and Porirua. A 2017 report said that a proposed commuter railway station near Churton Park on the

Kapiti Line Metlink's Kapiti Line is the electrified southern portion of the North Island Main Trunk railway between New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, and Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast, operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Greater Wellington Re ...

(and actually in Glenside) was too expensive.

Renaming

A competition was held to rename the suburb in 1928, to coincide with the opening of the Post Office. Local landowner Mrs P.C. Watts' suggestion of Glenside was selected. She felt the area was reminiscent of a Scottish glen.

The Halfway House

A halfway house is a place for travellers to rest, usually halfway between two settlements. A Halfway house was built in 1841 by Anthony and Susannah Wall. The Halfway was the halfway resting-place for travelers journeying between Wellington and Porirua along a Maori trail. The route this trail traversed from

Kaiwharawhara Kaiwharawhara is an urban seaside suburb of Wellington in New Zealand's North Island. It is located north of the centre of the city on the western shore of Wellington Harbour, where the Kaiwharawhara Stream reaches the sea from its headwaters ...

Porirua Porirua, ( mi, Pari-ā-Rua) a city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Porirua' is a corruption of 'Pari-rua', meaning "the tide swee ...

was to be modified and enlarged and become known as the Porirua Road.

Maori trail and Old Porirua Road

The development of the

north of The Halfway halted at The Halfway due to tension between the Government Administrators and Ngāti Toa. The issues for

involved questionable land purchases by Colonel Wakefield of the New Zealand Company before the signing of the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...

in 1840. This resulted in the

Wairau Affray The Wairau Affray of 17 June 1843, also called the Wairau Massacre in older histories, was the first serious clash of arms between British settlers and Māori in New Zealand after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and the only one to take ...

(1843), the Boulcott Farm hostilities in the Hutt Valley (1846) and the skirmish at Battle Hill (1846).

World War II Anti-tank trap

There are remains of a WW2

Tank trap Anti-tank obstacles include, but are not limited to: *The Czech hedgehog and Dragon's teeth are the most famous types of World War II anti-tank obstacles. * Anti-tank trenches were used on the western front during World War I, and in the Pacific ...

, on private land near Middleton Road. At the time of building this trap the road was known as "Porirua Road". This road was the only road between Wellington and Porirua. Remnants of the tank traps were rediscovered by railway workers in 2008.

Public works camp and construction plant

A public works camp was built at Glenside to house workers building the Tawa Flat deviation of the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

railway, constructed from 1924 to 1937. The northern portal of the long No 2 tunnel is at Glenside. The remains of a rock crusher remain in Rowells Road, Glenside, and can be seen from Middleton Road. Crushed rock from the crusher was used for the foundations of the railway deviation, and remains of the rock crusher form part of Rowells Road.

References

External links

Heritage Trail: Northern Suburbs - Following the Old Porirua Road, Wellington City Council
{{Suburbs of Wellington City Suburbs of Wellington City 1840 establishments in New Zealand