Epsom is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located in the centre of the Auckland isthmus between Mount Eden and Greenlane, south of Newmarket, and south of the Auckland City Centre.
A valley located between four volcanic hills, Epsom was settled by Tāmaki Māori likely in the 13th or 14th centuries, becoming an are cultivated for Māori gardens due to the fertile volcanic soil. By the 17th and 18th centuries, Epsom was close to the centre of Waiohua, an influential union of Tāmaki Māori tribes, who focused life at Maungawhau / Mount Eden and Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Around the year 1741, conflict between iwi led to the area becoming a part of the rohe of Ngāti Whātua.
After the establishment of Auckland, Ngāti Whātua sold of land to the Crown, on which the village of Epsom was established in 1841. Epsom developed into an agricultural area during the 1840s and 1850s, and by the 1860s upper class members of Auckland society began establishing large country homes at Epsom. In 1903, a tramway was established in the suburb, and commercial villages developed in Epsom. By the 1920s, most of Epsom had been converted from farmland into suburban housing. From 1930 to 1989, eastern Epsom was the One Tree Hill Borough, a local government area independent from the City of Auckland.
Major features of the Epsom area include Cornwall Park, Greenlane Clinical Centre and Alexandra Park.
Geography and definition
Epsom is an inland suburb in the central Auckland isthmus. While the suburb has no concrete landmarks that differentiate Epsom from surrounding areas, Epsom is primarily a valley enclosed by four volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field: Maungawhau / Mount Eden to the northwest, Tītīkōpuke / Mount Saint John to the northeast, Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill to the southeast and Te Tātua a Riukiuta / Three Kings to the southwest. Prior to European settlement, the Epsom valley was the location of numerous streams which flowed northwards towards the Waitematā Harbour. Since the 1960s, the corner of Manukau Road and Great South Road has popularly been understood as the beginning of Epsom.
Epsom is located between the suburbs of Mount Eden to the west, Newmarket to the north. Remuera to the east, and Three Kings to the southwest. The suburbs of One Tree Hill and Greenlane are found to the southeast, with Royal Oak to the south. Major arterial roads in Epsom include Manukau Road, which bisects the suburb and connects Newmarket to Royal Oak, Great South Road, a major road to the east of the suburb which links Newmarket to South Auckland, and Greenlane, a major east-west road across the isthmus. The Auckland Southern Motorway and Southern Line are located east of Epsom.
Greenwoods Corner is a small commercial village in southern Epsom, located at the crossroads of Manukau Road and Pah Road.
Etymology
The first references in newspapers to the Village of Epsom come from September 1841, when the first sections of land were sold at auction. The name was likely chosen to reference the Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey, England, famous for the Epsom Derby, as Epsom was chosen as one of the first locations where horse racing was held in New Zealand. The first races were advertised in September 1841, and held in November of the same year. Typically Robert Wynyard, superintendent of the Auckland Province, is identified as the person who chose the name Epsom, although this may be apocryphal.
While no traditional Tāmaki Māori names appear to refer to the Epsom valley, some traditional names include ("The Pit of Rangi"), located at the Great South Road and Manukau Road intersection, ("The Spring of Rangi"), located near the Mount Saint John Avenue and Manukau Road intersection, and ("The Cave of Many Bats"), located near Windmill Park.
Natural history
The Epsom area is primarily formed by volcanic soil modified into agricultural pasture, lying on top of Waitemata Group sandstone. Tītīkōpuke / Mount Saint John and Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill are the oldest of the Epsom area volcanoes, which are estimated to have erupted approximately 75,000 years and 67,000 years ago respectively. Te Tātua a Riukiuta / Three Kings last erupted an estimated 31,000 years ago. The youngest volcano in the Epsom area is Maungawhau / Mount Eden, which is estimated to have last erupted 28,000 years ago. To the southeast of Maungawhau / Mount Eden was Te Pou Hawaiki, a small scoria cone located at the modern-day site of the Auckland College of Education, which was quarried away. While there is no known estimate for how old Te Pou Hawaiki is, it is known to have erupted earlier than Maungawhau / Mount Eden.
The Epsom area is home to numerous lava caves, created by the eruptions of the five known volcanoes. Northern Epsom is the location of one of the rarest ecosystems in New Zealand, the Almorah Rock Forest. A soil-poor forest biome that developed on top of Maungawhau / Mount Eden scoria, the forest has reduced in size from to during human settlement of the Auckland isthmus.
History Māori history
The Auckland isthmus has been settled by Māori since around the 13th or 14th centuries. The Epsom valley was likely an early sites of Māori agriculture. The wider area was devoted to the shifting cultivation of crops, primarily kūmara (sweet potato). The volcanic peaks of Maungawhau / Mount Eden, Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, Tītīkōpuke / Mount Saint John were likely first settled around 1400AD, and an overland walking track () was created between the Waitematā and Manukau harbours, which later became Manukau Road.
Te Pou Hawaiki (a volcanic crater at the Auckland College of Education campus) was a traditionally important location, where a small pā known as was located. Soil from Hawaiki (the Māori homeland) was placed at the site during the early settlement period, and rituals were performed here prior to major hunting and fishing expeditions. A path known as ("The Path of Single File") led between Maungawhau / Mount Eden and Te Pou Hawaiki. Additionally, Melville Park is a site where large stones had been placed by Tāmaki Māori.
In the 17th century, chief Hua Kaiwaka consolidated tribes on the isthmus as a confederation called Waiohua, a union which lasted for three generations until the early 18th century. During this period, thousands of people lived at fortified pā complexes on Maungawhau / Mount Eden and Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill,
The Te Taoū hapū of Ngāti Whātua defeated Kiwi Tāmaki, the paramount chief of Waiohua circa 1741, at a battle at Paruroa (Big Muddy Creek) in the lower Waitākere Ranges, under the leadership of Tuperiri. After Waiohua were defeated in a series of battles, some members of Te Taoū settled at Tāmaki Makaurau and intermarried with Waiohua, later becoming known as Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. During this period, former agricultural areas on the isthmus began reforesting, due to the relatively smaller population of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, and Ngāti Whātua remained at Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill until the death of Tuperiri, around the year 1795.
Early contact with Europeans caused influenza outbreaks among Tāmaki Māori in 1793 and 1810. In late 1821 during the Musket Wars, a Ngāpuhi taua (war party) led by Hongi Hika attacked the Auckland isthmus settlements, leading to a period of time when the isthmus was mostly deserted, and Tāmaki Māori of the isthmus sheltered primarily to the south with Waikato Tainui relatives. Ngāti Whātua returned to the isthmus by the mid-1830s, resettling in the Māngere Bridge-Onehunga area.
Early colonial period
In 1840 after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau made a tuku (strategic gift) of land at Waihorotiu on the Waitematā Harbour to William Hobson, the first Governor of New Zealand, as a location for the capital of the colony to develop. This location became the modern city of Auckland, beginning with a port develop around Commercial Bay. In mid-1840, Apihai Te Kawau relocated the majority of the Ngāti Whātua from the Manukau Harbour to Remuera-Ōrākei on the Waitematā Harbour, closer to the new settlement of Auckland. Dual ports were created on either side of the isthmus the Port of Auckland on the Waitematā Harbour to the north of Epsom, and the Port of Onehunga on the Manukau Harbour, to the south.
In June 1841, the Crown purchased an additional of land south of Auckland from Apihai Te Kawau, much of which became the modern suburb of Epsom. The first farms in Epsom were subdivided and sold at auction in September 1841. As the first farms had been established later in that year, Epsom became one of the first European farming areas in New Zealand, and was quickly associated with horse racing events held on William Potter's land in the vicinity of modern-day Alexandra Park. In addition to the Village of Epsom, more villages were established by property developers, including Kingsdown, Windsor, Anna and Maytown; although none of these became permanent names used by residents. The population of Epsom grew from 51 people in 1842 to 222 people in 1845.
Epsom struggled to grow as a community in the 1840s and 1850s, due to land speculators. Despite the volcanic soil of the area leading to productive farms, profits from subdividing and on selling the land without settling it often outweighed the cost and effort of establishing working farms. Early land owners of farms in the area included George Graham, William Potter, William Greenwood (namesake of Greenwoods Corner) and James Dilworth. Early farms grew crops such as wheat, oats, flax and barley. By the 1850s, wheat had become unprofitable, leading to the growth in potatoes as a crop, an areas being redeveloped for livestock, including cattle, sheep, horses, pigs and poultry.
Around the year 1843, a windmill was constructed in Epsom at the corner of Windmill Road and St Andrews road. The windmill primarily milled wheat, and Māori regularly brought corn to be milled at the windmill. As the windmill became less profitable the owners struggled financially, and resorted to taking Tāmaki Māori human remains from lava caves on Maungawhau / Mount Eden, and grinding these to make bone fertiliser. During the Invasion of the Waikato in the early 1860s, the Epsom windmill was converted into a defensive post for the surrounding area.
In 1846, the first church in the area, St Andrews, was constructed in Epsom. The Anglican church was later rebuilt in 1868.
Upper class rural community
By the 1860s, Epsom and Remuera had grown to become locations where upper class families of Auckland built country manors and large houses. Major figures who lived on properties at Epsom during this period included Thomas Gillies, Edwin Hesketh, David Murdoch, John Benjamin Russell, and John Logan Campbell. the latter of whom had an extensive farm on the northern slopes of Maungakiekie. Tensions existed between the farmers of Epsom and its upper class residents, many of whom complained about agricultural odours and practices.
Compared to surrounding areas close to Auckland, Epsom residents resisted urbanisation. Amenities arrived much later in Epsom than other areas close to Auckland: the post office only being established in 1877, Manukau Road upgrades occurring in 1882, gas street lighting in 1882 and the first school only opening in 1885. By the 1890s, Chinese market gardeners began leasing land in Epsom, the first of whom was Ming Quong, who leased from John Logan Campbell in 1892, establishing market gardens at the modern-day site of the Cornwall Cricket Club.
In 1890, the Costley Home for the Aged Poor was established at the modern-day site of Greenlane Clinical Centre.