The Coromandel Peninsula and Thames - A Brief Historical Overview

This region has a long and interesting history...

• In 1769 Captain James Cook anchored off shore and was so attracted to the waterway that he named it after the famous river Thames in his homeland.

• In the 1850's the region became well known for its deposits of gold. Immigrants settled on the land north of the smaller of the 2 rivers.

• By 1867 Twentymans was established amongst a settlement of canvas tents and scrim shanties.

• 1868 the settlement, named Thames, was declared a Borough and it began to develop.

• A plan of Thames circa 1875 shows Grahamstown north of the Karaka Stream and Shortland on the south side, both suburbs with streets bearing the names retained to this day.

• By 1900 Thames had a population of 20,000 and 100 hotels.

Judging from the available accounts of early Coromandel, William Twentyman's arrival at Grahamstown was very timely indeed. From a Funeral Company point of view one wonders how many families and friends buried their dead on private and public land in the years before Local Authorities were established and land was set aside for public burial. Local churches would have recorded births, marriages and burials of members of their congregations but what of the unaffiliated? In this regard people of later generations owe a great debt of gratitude to early Funeral Undertakers, Libraries and District Councils for preserving valuable information of early New Zealand history in their records.

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