Gisborne's original Peel Street Bridge, built in 1881, is pictured in 1905. It was replaced by the existing bridge in 1923. Photo / Tairawhiti Museum William Crawford Collection
Gisborne's original Peel Street Bridge, built in 1881, is pictured in 1905. It was replaced by the existing bridge in 1923. Photo / Tairawhiti Museum William Crawford Collection
Technology, modes of transport and the times move on, but Gisborne’s roads have always been a source of great debate.
A Gisborne Borough Council meeting held a century ago (as of Wednesday) saw councillors discuss a request from Clare and Clare to drive horses across the Peel Street Bridge.
The company was then a local freight business only formed in 1910, but its trucks were to remain a regular sight on Gisborne roads until 1973.
The company sought permission to drive horses over the bridge “providing the traffic inspector’s regulations were complied with”, according to the Gisborne Times of January 9, 1924.
Councillors supported the traffic inspector in rejecting the proposal.
The unnamed traffic inspector said the Peel Street Bridge was in the centre of town and carried a great deal of traffic.
All stock should go over the Roebuck Rd and William Pettie bridges, he said.
Councillor Thomas Todd, a former deputy mayor, moved a motion backing the request by Clare and Clare, but it was not supported by a majority of councillors.
When councillors were discussing Clare and Clare’s request in 1924, the bridge was less than seven weeks old.
It had replaced the original bridge, built in 1881 by the New Zealand Native Land Settlement Company, to connect the Whataupoko Block with the Gisborne township.
By 1920 it could no longer cope with Gisborne’s increased traffic flow.
Staff from the Clare and Clare trucking business outside their Childers Road base in 1921. Three years later the company applied unsuccessfully to Gisborne Borough Council for permission to drive horses across the Peel Street Bridge. Photo / Gisborne Photo News
In November 2023, historians Sheridan Gundry and Jane Luiten wrote a lengthy article for the Gisborne Herald on the centenary of the opening of the (second) Peel Street Bridge, which still serves Gisborne today.
They wrote that the bridge, which was “a visible emblem of local growth and prosperity, civic pride and optimism in the city’s future, opened to the public on November 24, 1923, amid great fanfare”.
“Listed a Category 2 historic place with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, the Peel Street Bridge is historically significant because of its role in the development of Gisborne’s transport and communications systems, and the development of Whataupoko and Mangapapa.”
The contract price for the construction of the bridge, regrading and reforming Ormond Rd and Fitzherbert St, re-laying Peel St in concrete, and extending the tramway to the borough boundary on Ormond Rd was £60,079 15s, of which £24,970 was allocated to build the bridge.
