Halcombe is a small settlement in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New Zealand.
The pub featured briefly on a DB TV beer ad in the 1990s.
A travelling circus large enough to own an elephant once set up on Halcombe rugby field.
[5] The North Island Main Trunk railway line runs through Halcombe, which had a station from 1878 to 1983.
The area was originally settled by hapū linked to Ngāti Raukawa.
[3] The European settlement was established in 1876 by the immigration agent Arthur Halcombe, who lived in nearby Feilding.
Immigrants were given free passage and an acre of land in the Manchester Block, to provide labour for bush-felling and road construction, with larger blocks of land being made available from 1878.
[8] The railway reached Halcombe in 1877, connecting through to Whanganui in 1878, allowing the town to become a thriving rural centre and the main railway junction in the central North Island.
The town's railway station had a combined post and telegraph office and bank, and Anglican, Presbyterian, Catholic and Lutheran Churches.
[9] Halcombe was intended to be the main centre of Manawatu, but an active riverbed on the Rangitikei River stopped further development.
Land clearance and timer-milling gave way to farming, and the neighbouring towns of Feilding, Marton and Palmerston North took over as the main local centres.
[10] The train station, which contained a post office and bar, burned down in 1962.