Up Trent

Visitors to Ocracoke may notice a section of paved road called Trent Drive. It connects the eastern ends of Sunset Drive (known as Ammunition Dump Road by old-timers) and Middle Road.

Click to view Full Map

Trent Drive is located in a small section of the village historically known as "Up Trent" or "Upland Trent." Nearby is an area called Trentwood.

Interestingly, several other geographical areas in eastern North Carolina bear the Trent moniker. For example, there is the Trent River in eastern North Carolina (its origin is near Kinston, and empties into the Neuse River at New Bern).

The small village of Frisco, on Hatteras Island, was at one time called Trent or Trent Woods. Although Algonquin Indians had established a village there centuries earlier, the first European settlers called the area Trent. In 1898 the U.S. Post Office renamed the village Frisco to avoid confusion with another town on the mainland called Trent.

Because the majority of early Outer Banks settlers came from the British Isles, I am guessing that the name Trent originally indicated a connection with the small English village of Trent in northwest Dorset. Unfortunately, details of that connection have been lost over time.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the Electrification of Ocracoke Island. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022117.htm.