Solway is an old-established residential suburb near the Waingawa River in the south-western part of

Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...

, the principal town in the Wairarapa Valley of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. It was a small part of Manaia run on which Masterton is built. It takes its present name from Solway House built in 1877 for W. H. Donald.

Solway College Solway College is a girls' boarding school in Masterton, New Zealand. It is an State-integrated school, integrated school for girls from Year 7 to Year 13 (Forms 1 to 7) with a limited number of day girl places. The College was founded in 1916. ...

, a Presbyterian girls' boarding school, was established in Solway House in 1916 but Solway's central feature remains the near-moribund Masterton Agricultural & Pastoral Association's Solway Showgroundspreviously in Dixon Street opened in 1911. A Wairarapa Farmers Market for artisan produce is held under the grandstand each Saturday morning. Solway also has several parks and reserves, including the Masterton Trust Lands Trust's Millennium Reserve built over the

Acclimatisation Society Acclimatisation societies were voluntary associations in the 19th and 20th centuries that encouraged the introduced species, introduction of non-native species in various places around the world, in the hope that they would acclimatization, acclimat ...

's trout hatcheries and South Park, a softball field and dog-walking area.

History

Donald Donald (1854—1922) born at Manaia is reported to have said the original name for the area now known as Solway was Purātā, a Maori name for a flowering Rātā. Solway House was a Donald homestead built in 1877 on part of Manaia, a 30,000 acre run owned by partners W. B. Rhodes and William Hodgson Donald (1815—1885), manager of the run. Donald married in England and came to New Zealand in 1842. He first established his family at

Pencarrow Pencarrow ( kw, Pennkarow) is a listed building, Grade II*-listed country house in the civil parish of Egloshayle, in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles (5 km) east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles ( ...

then by 1849 became one of the first European farmers to settle in the Wairarapa. Wairarapa M.P.

Haddon Donald Haddon Vivian Donald, (20 March 1917 – 23 April 2018) was a New Zealand soldier, businessman and politician of the National Party. He was the oldest living former New Zealand Member of Parliament, and at the time of his death, was the hi ...

was a descendant. Until the time of the showgrounds when the name Solway seems to have been generally recognised the 1877 homestead's address was Solway House, Manaia. W. H. Donald named Solway House after the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

manor-house he was born and grew up in, the now-demolished Solway House on the banks of the Whampool River between

Anthorn Anthorn (pronounced ) is a village in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Cumberland, it is situated on the south side of the Solway Firth, on the River Wampool, Wampool estuary, about west of Carlisle, Cumbria, C ...

and

Cardurnock Cardurnock is a small settlement in Cumbria, England. It is by the coast, west of Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle. The western extension of the Hadrian's Wall frontier defences once passed through the Cardurnock peninsula, though not the Wall itsel ...

. Manaia run or station stretched from the Waingawa to the Waipoua, where it met with Te Ore Ore station, and the original run grazed cattle on most of the Taratahi. Brenda Donald married Archibald Kennedy Arnot, (1841—1872) East Indian Navy. was the first pakeha woman born in Masterton at Manaia 12 July 1851. Barney Rhodes sold up 14,000 acres including some 1300 acres of freehold in 1859. Donald Donald kept the 640 acres from Kuripuni triangle to the river known as Solway and his elder brother, Rhodes Donald (1847—1917), kept an adjacent portion with the name Manaia. The original Manaia house burned down. Rhodes Donald built a new house but soon sold to John and George Judd. That part of Manaia Road was renamed Judd's Road. The original Manaia woolshed built on the Waingawa side of what is now Judd's Road, the oldest pakeha building in Masterton, has been in Greytown's Cobblestones Museum since 1973 after a brief sojourn on the showgrounds. At Cobblestones the woolshed displays a Manaia invention and development, a Donald patented wool press. Made in both Perry Street, Masterton and Sydney NSW these presses were sent all over the world. A new 80-lot subdivision received planning approval in September 2013.

Demographics

Solway, comprising the statistical areas of Solway North and Solway South, covers . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Solway had a population of 5,805 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 651 people (12.6%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 882 people (17.9%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 2,241 households. There were 2,841 males and 2,967 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.96 males per female, with 1,182 people (20.4%) aged under 15 years, 1,143 (19.7%) aged 15 to 29, 2,403 (41.4%) aged 30 to 64, and 1,077 (18.6%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 83.7% European/Pākehā, 22.3% Māori, 4.3% Pacific peoples, 5.4% Asian, and 1.2% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 12.2%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 49.3% had no religion, 38.2% were Christian, 1.3% were Hindu, 0.6% were Buddhist and 2.5% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 519 (11.2%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 1,194 (25.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 2,199 (47.6%) people were employed full-time, 723 (15.6%) were part-time, and 135 (2.9%) were unemployed.

Education

Solway School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students, with a roll of as of .

Hadlow Preparatory School Hadlow Preparatory School is a state-integrated Anglican primary school in High Street, Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District ...

is a co-educational Anglican state-integrated primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of .

is a state-integrated Presbyterian girls' intermediate and secondary school for Year 7 to 13 students, with a roll of . It is a boarding school founded in 1916.

Transport

Excursion, a steam locomotive crosses the Waingawa River in 2017

Roads and bus services

Solway is served by many forms of public transport. State Highway 2 (or High Street), runs straight through the middle of Solway. There are two bus services serving Solway: *200 – To/from central Masterton, Carterton, Greytown, Featherston & Martinborough. Runs all week. *202 – Travelling from Central Masterton through Solway and Kuripuni and back again. Runs 4 times daily on weekdays.

Rail services

connects residents to the cities of

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

and

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 ...

. Its close proximity to

makes it popular with its students, which board in

and live in

Hood Aerodrome

Hood Aerodrome is in Solway though as of 2015, there are no commercial flights from it. From early 2009 until late 2013 Air New Zealand provided flights to Auckland, operated by subsidiary

Eagle Airways Eagle Airways was a regional airline based in Hamilton, New Zealand and was wholly owned by Air New Zealand, operating regional services under the Air New Zealand Link brand. The airline was disbanded on 26 August 2016, with staff absorbed int ...

six days a week, mainly to serve business customers in the Wairarapa. There have been a few other unsuccessful attempts at commercial air travel in Masterton, mostly failing due to its proximity to major airports in

and

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

. The most significant was by

South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand was a New Zealand airline, operating between 1960 and 1966. It is regarded as a forerunner to Ansett New Zealand. History South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand (SPANZ) was founded in 1960 by Bob Anderson a ...

(SPANZ), which operated daily flights using DC3s during the sixties to destinations nationwide until the airline's closure in 1966.

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

is an avid

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

enthusiast and owns a collection of over 40 flyable World War I-era

warbird A warbird is any vintage military aircraft now operated by civilian organizations and individuals, or in some instances, by historic arms of military forces, such as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the RAAF Museum Historic Flight, or the ...