Westmorland

I have finished walking and writing up the suburb of Westmorland. In Papers Past I found an article about the the development dated 1982. The subdivision was described as a modern Cashmere and to be an exclusive subdivision. The developers Wayne and Bruce Francis purchased Happy Home Farm from their father in 1958 and decided to turn it into a housing estate. When this article was written Wayne Francis was the sole developer as he had bought his brother’s share of the company. It was apparently a childhood dream of Wayne to cover the hills with houses. Personally I think that this was a weird childhood dream. He planned on two shopping centres including a supermarket, a butcher, a drapery shop and hairdressers. He also planned a tavern but the residents objected to this. He obviously didn’t get any shopping centres here. A primary was planned for the suburb but that didn’t happen either. Wayne said that he had a lot of problems with red tape with the council and the Drainage Board. He had to underwrite the cost of the pumping station. In 1976 he was prosecuted for the discharge of silt into the Cashmere Stream. He also had flooding issues in the subdivision and was upset that people thought that the subdivision was unsafe. He also told the reporter that there had been funding issues and he had to borrow a large amount of money to finish the project. The reporter noted that he was still able to drive a very expensive car.

I researched the Francis family on the Ancestry website and I couldn’t find any connection to the Cumbria area of the UK. They had connections to Cornwall, Devon and Ireland. The original Francis came to New Zealand from Ireland in 1832 and settled in Otago. The various women who married into the family came from Devon and Cornwall.

Not all street names in the suburb are place names in Cumbria even through the library claims that they are from Cumbria.

The meaning of Westmorland is the district of the people living west of the moors.