Dr Renwick (who Renwicktown was named after, but who did not name the streets)
Many of the streets of early Renwicktown, as it was known in those days, were labelled with the names of battles, generals and English villages.
It's perhaps surprising, as the man who owned the land from which the first portion of land that Renwick was built on was owned by a Scot, Dr Thomas Renwick, who'd arrived in Nelson in 1842 and bought land in Marlborough.
Howard Lakerman, assistant to the surveyors Cyrus Goulter and Joseph Ward, who suggested that Dr Renwick subdivide some of his land into town sections.
When that portioning of land eventually happened, including six acres of land for a church and a school, the surveyors in charge needed to come up with names for the new streets.
They looked to the "home country" for inspiration and so the streets that criss-crossed Marlborough's first town, Renwicktown, were labelled with the names of battles, generals and English villages.
The results are still seen today: Oudenarde, Clive, Havelock, Clyde, Alma, Picton, Anglesey (Anglesea Street) and Uxbridge.
Other Renwick streets are named after settlers from Dr Renwick's time: Brydon, Godfrey, McIsaacs, Gibson, Boyce and Newman.
See a map of Street Name History
