Foxton, New Zealand
Foxton is a town in the
North Island of
New Zealand. The
2001 census population was 4617.
Winter temperatures are generally in the low teens, with the high possibility of strong winds, while summer temperatures are normally around the mid twenties.
The town is in the
Horowhenua region, 30 kilometres southwest of
Palmerston North and 15 kilometres north of
Levin. The town is located close to the banks of the
Manawatu River. The small coastal settlement of
Foxton Beach is located six kilometres to the west, close to the river's mouth.
Foxton was named after Sir
William Fox, and has a history of
flax stripping, which was used to make rope, baskets and other tools. Other industries associated with the town have included clothing manufacture and sawmilling. There is now a large
Dutch windmill, called
deMolen, that makes stone-ground
flour (pictured left).
Foxton is the oldest settlement in the southern
Manawatu, although it was not always sited where it currently is. The original site of the town was to the east, closer to the present town of
Shannon in 1842. The town was moved to its present site in
1885. In the early years of European settlement it was an important trading post and it was only with the advent of the Palmerston North-
Wellington railway that Palmerston North began to overtake it as the most important centre in the Manawatu. The central government originally intended for Foxton to be on the route of the main line from Wellington to Auckland via Palmerston North and a
tramway linking Foxton and Palmerston North was upgraded into the
Foxton Branch railway in the
1870s. However, due to government delays on extending the line further south, a group of Wellingtonian businessmen established the
Wellington and Manawatu Railway (WMR) and built their line along a more direct route that bypassed Foxton. When this line opened in
1886, Foxton's status as a port slipped, and this position deteriorated further when the WMR was incorporated into the government's
national rail network in
1908. Shipping via Foxton ceased in
1942 and the railway closed in
1959.
