Hurworth is a locality in

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is south of the city of

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

. The settlement was established in the 1850s.

History

Harry Atkinson, the Premier of New Zealand, named Hurworth after a village he had lived in as a child in England. Atkinson contributed to the establishment of the settlement; he built what is now known as "Hurworth Cottage," from what a

sawyer *A sawyer (occupation) is someone who saws wood. *Sawyer, a fallen tree stuck on the bottom of a river, where it constitutes a danger to boating. Places in the United States Communities *Sawyer, Kansas *Sawyer, Kentucky * Sawyer, Michigan * Saw ...

had taught him. Hurworth became one of six thriving settlements, known for its fine

cheeses Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

. Other residents included the Ronalds family – five brothers and sisters of Dr

Edmund Ronalds Dr Edmund Ronalds FCS FRSE (18 June 1819 – 9 September 1889) was an English academic and industrial chemist. He was co-author of a seminal series of books on chemical technology that helped begin university teaching of chemical applications fo ...

. However, many buildings were damaged in the

First Taranaki War The First Taranaki War (also known as the North Taranaki War) was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori people, Māori and the New Zealand government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North ...

of 1860. The town was abandoned and residents were forced to move to nearby New Plymouth
Hurworth Cottage
was the only building standing in the area after the war in 1861, but its floor had been set afire.''Taranaki Daily News''. 23 April 2012. 23 April 2012. p. 9. Atkinson did not return to the settlement until 1865. The area afterwards grew into another small community, and in 1967, the cottage was given to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust by its then-owner, Robert Brown. It has since been preserved.

Attractions

The Pouakai Zoo is located in Hurworth and includes lions, (white-coated) tigers, meerkats, tammar wallabies, black-handed spider monkeys and a female lar gibbon.

References

Populated places in Taranaki New Plymouth District Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in Taranaki {{Taranaki-geo-stub