Silverhope railway station was a station on 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 ...

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 ...

, from Marton. Goods were first carried to the station on 19 October 1887, though the official opening of the Marton to Hunterville section wasn't until Saturday 2 June 1888, when the station was served by two trains a week, reported as losing £15 a week. A Certificate of Inspection for the line was issued on Wednesday, 6 June 1888. Construction of the line from Marton to Silverhope was under the £27,300 Porewa Contract, for which tenders were sought in March 1885. In May 1885 James Johnston, the contractor, was blamed for only employing 60 navvies, rather than about 200. The contractor's sureties were approached by government in August 1885 and in September 1885 the navvies were laid off. The contract was relet to Mr Howe, who completed it about 2 months late. It was due to such problems, that works further up the line were mostly let to

worker cooperatives A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

. Silverhope had a population of 174 in 1901, which had declined to 55 by 1911. In 1905 it had two sawmills, cutting

rimu ''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps. The Māori name ''rimu'' comes from the Polynesian ...

mataī ''Prumnopitys taxifolia'', the mataī ( mi, mataī) or black pine, is an endemic New Zealand coniferous tree that grows on the North Island and South Island. It also occurs on Stewart Island/Rakiura (47 °S) but is uncommon there. It grows up ...

, and

kahikatea ''Dacrycarpus dacrydioides'', commonly known as kahikatea (from Māori) and white pine, is a coniferous tree endemic to New Zealand. A podocarp, it is New Zealand's tallest tree, gaining heights of 60 m and a life span of 600 years. It was firs ...

, which was sent to Marton. One mill moved to Taihape in 1907, but there was still one mill here in 1958. Silverhope was named after London merchant,

Stephen William Silver Stephen William Silver was born to Stephen Winckworth Silver and his wife, Frances Susan Adams, on 7 May 1817. He was a brother of Hugh Silver. They were London merchants, who took over running S. W. Silver and Co. from their father in 1846. He ...

, after whom

Silvertown Silvertown is a district in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, Becontree Hundred, hundred of Becontr ...

in London is also named. About 1879, he bought the property and converted it from

bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...

to farming. By 1896 Silverhope had a shelter shed, passenger platform, cart approach, urinals and a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

for 21 wagons. Stockyards were added in 1908. The bridge over the Porewa Stream, just south of the station, was damaged by a flood in 1904. A slip blocked the line in 1907. A report on 19 June 1959 said there was no passenger, parcels, or outwards small lots goods traffic and only three inwards loads of livestock, potatoes, and manure in the previous two years. The station closed on 24 October 1971 and tenders were called for removal of buildings in 1972. Little remains of what was always a very small station. Only a single track runs through the station site. The nearby Bruce Park Scenic Reserve, with a memorial to

Robert Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventuall ...

, has a short walkway through it.

References

External links

photo of sawmill in 1905
Defunct railway stations in New Zealand Railway stations opened in 1887 1887 establishments in New Zealand Railway stations closed in 1971 1971 disestablishments in New Zealand Railway stations in New Zealand opened in the 1880s Railway stations in New Zealand closed in the 1970s {{NewZealand-railstation-stub