Долина Стокса: История и происхождение названия

Suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand

It has been suggested that the valley was formed during the ice age 10,000–20,000 years ago by glacial scouring, but considering that the Hutt Valley and the greater Wellington area have experienced major tectonic uplifting it is possible that the valley was formed through major earthquakes and erosion. According to tradition, Māori arrived in the Hutt Valley in about 1250 AD when the two sons of Whatonga, a Hawke's Bay chief, settled in the area and named the Hutt River Heretaunga, after their old home. Although Māori had lived in the Hutt Valley for almost 600 years prior to Europeans, there has been no evidence of Māori habitation in Stokes Valley and the closest iwi (tribe), located at Waiwhetū, say they never used the valley for any significant purpose before Europeans arrived. Stokes Valley was located at the junction of the claimed territory of three major Māori tribes, the Te Āti Awa who sold it to European settlers, Ngāti Toa, and the Ngāti Kahungunu, and for this reason it would have in all likelihood never have been inhabited. This partially explains an extreme willingness to include this land in the sale to the early settlers.

The modern history of the area, as far as European settlement is concerned, began on 21 September 1839, when local Te Āti Awa chief Te Puni gestured with his arms and pointed finger the areas of the Hutt Valley and Wellington, that he was willing to sell to the New Zealand Land Company through its agent Colonel William Wakefield aboard the ship Tory. Stokes Valley, which at that time was simply an unnamed branch valley of the Hutt Valley, was included in this land. The second of the New Zealand Company's ships to arrive in Wellington was the 273 ton Cuba on 3 January 1840. It had on board 20 able bodied men aged from 20 to 27. Among these was the Company's surveying party, whose duty was to plan the city at Thorndon and survey the site in readiness for the arrival of the emigrants who already procured sections in London. The first emigrant ship, containing 85 adult settlers and their 42 children, arrived only 17 days later. At this stage there was no sections or shelters surveyed for most of the people, and many had to live in huts built by the Māori, or simply shelter under karaka trees. The Wellington and Hutt Valley area was hurriedly surveyed. The original survey party that arrived in 1840 on the Cuba comprised Captain William Mein Smith (Surveyor General) and Messrs. R. D. Hanson, W. Carrington, R. Park, R. Stokes, and K. Bethune, all well known personalities in the early history of Wellington. Robert Stokes, after whom the valley was named, was initially active surveying a 'valley east of the valley of the Hutt' from 30 March to 2 April 1841, resuming the following 14 October for a few more days, highly probably referring to the area first named as Stokes Valley in a plan of January 1843. Stokes left the employ of the New Zealand Company in early 1842 and went into business for himself. Stokes Street in Wellington was named in his honour in the 1841 map of Wellington. Robert Stokes took a prominent part in Wellington affairs, including government. He published a work in 1844 on the Wairau Affray, led the first European crossing of the Rimutaka range to the Wairarapa, built a once famous house in Wellington, "Saint Ruadhan", on Woolcombe Street (since demolished; the site now forms part of The Terrace). He was a keen gardener, known for his prize winning vegetables and flowers, and was also a keen botanist, and was treasurer of the Horticultural and Botanical Society. He became a publisher and printer, his name appearing on The New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian as a printer He was a prominent speaker, and was instrumental in carrying a Bill to establish a municipal corporation for Wellington and a railway link to the Wairarapa. Stokes stood as an elected member of the Wairarapa Council in 1867, and was a Member of the Victoria University of Wellington Senate from 1871 to 1878. Stokes died at Clanricarde Gardens, London, on 20 January 1880.

The first Crown Land Grants in Stokes Valley were made from 18 January 1853. Section 74 was granted to Robert Henry Wood and Section 73 to George Hart. Wood never settled in the valley, even though he received another land grant of section 67. There is no known evidence that he ever left England, and it was common to have absentee ownership of Crown grants in those days, but it is known that he served on the Committee of the First Colony formed in London. Hart who was born in London, also never settled in the valley, but he did leave England after receiving the land grant, arriving on the ship Mary in 1843. In 1863 he was appointed Commissioner of Thorndon for the Thorndon Ward of the Wellington Town Board. The first person to actually settle in Stokes Valley after the making of Crown Grants was Mr. Hart Udy who immediately set up a saw mill on his property at the entrance to the Valley on the north East side of the main road. His property was plot or Section 65 of the original Crown land grant. Spackman arrived with his wife on the ship Bolton on 21 April 1840, and a son was born to them three months later. George Spackman paraded with the "Old Identities" who attended the capital's Jubilee of Colonisation in 1890. at the stream near Staples Brewery he moved to Waiwhetū (now a suburb of Lower Hutt), where he worked as a carpenter for many years. On 1 March 1845 his house was pillaged by local Mãori. In 1849 he built the first Anglican church in Lower Hutt near the Hutt Bridge On 24 May 1852 Mr Hart Udy by mutual consent dissolved a Saw Milling partnership which he had with William Corbett and Richard Blake that was based in Stokes Valley, so it is assumed he had worked in the valley for a significant time before then. He moved to Stokes Valley in 1853, and resided there until 1857, when he took his family to Matarawa where he had access to valuable bush clad land. Two further marriages are recorded from October, with the marriage of Isaac Sykes to Maria Ann Wyeth of Upper Hutt at St James' Church at Lower Hutt on 8 October, and the marriage of Stokes Valley farmer John Walker to Mary Brown of Kapiti, at the Anglican Church in Upper Hutt, by the Rev. Mr Abrahams on 26 October. Other early incidents in Stokes Valley include the invention and patenting of an improved milk churn, by Ignatius Singer in 1900, and two local tragedies. The first of these occurred on 10 December 1883, when an elderly woman named Hamlin was shot at by a youth. There was no shot loaded in the gun, but gunpowder lodged in her left arm above the wrist. Hamlin died during an operation to amputate the arm. Another account of this same incident Mrs. Hope had decided to meet her husband Joseph William Hope from the Silverstream railway station (now a train museum) after his work, but he did not arrive. She was halfway back to Stokes Valley at a steep part of the gorge when she saw the next train coming and made an attempt to turn the horse and carriage around to go back to meet it. It is thought that the horse took fright and as Mrs. Hope was not experienced at controlling a carriage it slipped down into the ravine. The bodies were found about one hour later, drowned in about four feet of water. The horse was none the worse for wear. The husband did not find out what had happened to her until the following Thursday when he read it in The Evening Post. It was later decided at an inquest that the road was dangerous and needed to be fenced as bicycles were frequently on the road and could frighten horses. (It is not known whether any bicycles were involved in the Hope tragedy).

In 1927 a toll bridge was erected across the Hutt River to service the valley, but this was destroyed by a flood in 1932 and replaced by a foot bridge that was later deemed unsafe. Before 1940 the upper valley was heavily populated with holiday baches and enjoyed a resort status. During the Second World War, the United States Marine Corps established a base near the foot of the valley.

The Otago witness and Pinehaven and Stokes Valley were declared disaster zones. At 10:30am on 20 December, a petrol station at the entrance to Stokes Valley was flooded to within of the top of the petrol pumps. Three houses in Ngahere Street were destroyed when they slipped down a hill. Five Stokes Valley residents were evacuated by a helicopter from the United States Coast Guard icebreaker Burton Island which happened to be in port at the time, About 100 Hutt Valley people evacuated from their homes were given accommodation at the Epuni Boys Home.

Stokes Valley was often referred in print as "Stokes's Valley". In 2005 the original Stokes Valley School, established over 100 years earlier, changed its name to Koraunui School, after its merger with Kamahi School. It was decided to change the school's name as a sign of respect to Kamahi School (which closed after the merger on 28 January 2005), and because the new entity essentially became a new school, its roll approximately doubling overnight with the merger. as of 2010 the roll for Koraunui School is around 330 pupils. The name Koraunui is also used for the Koraunui Marae in Stokes Valley, the Koraunui Kindergarten in Stokes Valley Road, the Koraunui Sports Club, and the Koraunui Hall (which was a major event centre for Stokes Valley society functions, including mayoral dinners, and is used by clubs and for fundraising events). Since the late 1990s Stokes Valley has been affectionately known by some locals (both past and present) and those living within the greater Wellington area as Snake Gully. The origin of this nickname is not known but is likely to relate to the 1940s radio series 'Dad and Dave from Snake Gully'

In common with several other New Zealand towns stereotypically seen as largely consisting of working class people with little access to nightlife, Stokes Valley is now ironically referred to on many internet forums and discussion groups as Stokes Vegas. In keeping with this theme, the Stokes Valley Cosmopolitan Club has a gambling casino called "Stokes Vegas Gaming Room"

Tawhai School is a co educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students, with a roll of as of
Koraunui School is a co educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students, with a roll of
Tui Glen School is a co educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of .

Brothers Neville and Dave Hiscock were both internationally famous motorcycle racers who lived in Stokes Valley. Dave Hiscock dominated the New Zealand racing scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, winning 40 consecutive races. He won the New Zealand Castrol Six Hour race five times and was placed five times in the Australian Castrol Six Hour Race in the 1970s and 1980s. His brother Neville Hiscock won the Australian Castrol Six Hour Race in 1981, and teamed with his brother to win the New Zealand Castrol Six Hour Race in 1982. Neville was killed in February 1983 while racing in Killarney, near Cape Town in South Africa. Notable artist Guy Ngan was a resident of Stokes Valley for over 50 years. Ngan, born to Chinese parents in 1926, produced a range of work across a large range of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, design, and architecture. His sculpture Mating Worms at the entrance to Stokes Valley has become the de facto symbol of the Valley since its installation in 1980, appearing on such things as the logo of local newspapers and school reports. Ngan was director of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts from 1976 to 1986. In 2006 a major retrospective of his work was held at the Wellington City Art Gallery. His sculpture Elevating Worms is in the Scott Court shopping mall, on the side facing Stokes Valley Road. Darcy Nicholas, "one of the best known of early contemporary Maori artists", also resides in Stokes Valley with his wife Anne. Several notable sportspeople call Stokes Valley their home. These include three representative association footballers: Craig Henderson, who plays professionally for Mjällby AIF in Sweden; New Zealand international Cole Peverley; and Dan Keat, who has played with Dartmouth College and L. A Galaxy in the United States. All three have represented New Zealand at age group level, with Peverley playing once for the national team (the All Whites) in 2008. Craig Bradshaw, New Zealand international basketball player, also grew up in Stokes Valley. Bradshaw represented the country as a member of the Tall Blacks during the 2004 Summer Olympics campaign and the 2006 FIBA World Championships. Wellington Lion & Hurricane, Brad Shields grew up in Stokes Valley. Jack Gleeson, All Black coach in 1972 and from 1977 to 1978, owned the Stokes Valley tavern and the All Blacks practised at Delaney Park before the first test against the British and Irish Lions in June 1977.