Stokes Valley, 1840-1965: the change from rural to urban

Abstract

Converging on the north east - south west fault line of the Hutt Valley, Stokes Valley is almost parallel to the sloping eastern margin of the fault angle depression of the Lower Hutt Valley. Separated by a ridge, three to four hundred feet in height, from the adjacent part of the Hutt Valley, Stokes Valley runs predominately north-south in line with the general strike of the ridge and valley pattern of the Wellington Region. See Plate II The mouth of Stokes Valley is to the north and the elevation of the valley floor increases towards the south, thus giving a northward facing aspect. The only outlet from Stokes Valley is at the northern end meeting the gorge of the Hutt River as it cuts through from the upper to the lower Hutt Valley. See Plate I In 1945, Stokes Valley was the place of residence of four hundred people, dotted irregularly over the valley floor, forming a rural urban fringe to its urban neighbour of Lower Hutt, the population of which totalled over thirty thousand. Lower Hutt had experienced rapid growth, from its original status as a rural urban fringe to Wellington City. The government of the country was faced with the change to peace-time activities and the repair of the wartime and early depression years' neglect of housing, industrial development, education and communications. New Zealand, in addition to its resumption of peacetime employment, was also beginning the resumption of the deferred activities of the previous six years - marriage, housing, families and education.