More of Rogan Street

Halfway along Rogan Street, at the corner of Ridge Lane, is a massive coral tree. It was planted in the 1870s; during the Taranaki War of the 1860s, this corner was the site of a fort, Fort Cameron, which was one of a line of forts which formed the outer defences of New Plymouth. The next in line to the east was Fort Niger, which is still a reserve up behind our former house in Lemon Street; to the west the line of forts ran to Pukekura Park's highest point, and then to the military HQ on Marsland Hill behind St Mary's Church.

Here is the tree with the houses on each corner next to it:

Next comes a house built on to a stone wall along the street frontage, with windows set into the wall:

You can still see the roof with its two chimneys in this next view, with the next two houses as well:

And finally the last three houses in Rogan Street right opposite the Boys High School.

John Rogan was one of the gang, or crew, of surveyors who assisted Frederic Carrington in laying out the streets and town sections and allocating names in 1841 and 1842 for the infant town of New Plymouth. Others in the crew were Frederic's younger brothers, Wellington and Octavius (cf Octavius Place) and Harcourt Aubrey (Aubrey Street), whose life-story is entwined with that of Margaret's great-great grandmother, Harriet Foreman. One of their descendants until recently lived in the house behind the tree in my first sketch above.

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By way of foretaste of the next sketching blog, here is the first of some views of more houses, this time in Pendarves Street, which runs parallel to Lemon Street one block further away from the CBD. The two-storeyed house on the left is a very early one for this part of town: note the wide weatherboards and the wall without windows.