• Stones Middlemarch directory listings

• Cemetery records online

• "The Cemetery Book"

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However, it was the private township of the Humphreys at Garthmyl, which gave name to the township of Middlemarch that we know today. It was also in Middlemarch, not Arden, that a main street developed. This was Snow Avenue, where many services and shops were located: The railway station, the Railway Hotel, Mitchell’s famous store, stock agents Stronach, Morris & Co, the Post Offce, Strath Taieri Hotel, Pacey’s shop (fruit, confectionary, billiard,hair dressing, tobacco and later TAB), Horn’s grocery store and Buchanan’s Garage.

In Arden the sections for sale stretched from Mold Street north across Conway, Cardigan, Neath, Milford and Cardiff Streets and west from Brecon Street across Clywd, Tawe, Swansea, Bangor, Bala and Denbich Streets. Mold St is the "border" between Arden and the township of Middlemarch.

Only a small number of sections were sold for housing and many of the intended street names were never used. Few sections were built on until the 1960s. However, recently blue street signs have been put up and some of the old names have reappeared, for example Bala Street. Younger people may be surprised to know that in earlier times roads were often known simply as “back road” or “top road” or by the name of the people who lived there. Hence, we now have roads named after old families, for example McKinnon Rd, McHardy Rd, Kidd Rd, Watson Rd and Mason Rd.

• Download Arden section of "Notable Trees of the Strath Taieri" by Anne Elliot 540KB

Elliot, A., & Blair, D. (2006). Notable Trees of the Strath Taieri: A collection of the 22 best trees in the area with historical information. Anne Elliot: Middlemarch

Available from the author, ae@middlemarch.nz, Strath Taieri Historical Museum, Kissing Gate Cafe and Middlemarch Postal Agency.

RR $25.00