Gordon Street

Gordon Street is a cul-de-sac in Glen Avon running off Queens Road. The street was surveyed and subdivided for the landowner, Joseph Bagley, in December 1927.

Twenty-eight sections were included in a plan for the new housing development located near the picturesque Waiwhakaiho River. However, strangely it would be nearly 30 years before residential development began in earnest.

An indication that progress was not to be straightforward was a delay of three years before the Taranaki Daily News reported that the Taranaki County Council had finally approved the county engineer’s plans to form and metal Gordon Street.

When Joseph Bagley died in 1937 there was still no sign that sections were being sold or homes built. The 69-year-old farmer was remembered as a valuable member of both the Taranaki A & P Association and the Ayrshire Breeders Association.

An aerial photograph taken in 1950 indicates that although Gordon Street had been formed, the northern side was home to what appears to be a plant nursery and on the southern side only one house had been built on the corner with Queens Road.

In 1955 the street made its first appearance in a local directory with two residents listed as living on the northern side and labourer Henry Lee dwelling on the corner with Queens Road. Finally, another aerial photograph taken in 1963 shows the street almost full of newly built houses and gardens being developed.

Unfortunately, council records are silent as to why, almost a century ago, the name Gordon Street was chosen. The only clue we have is that Joseph’s wife’s middle name was Gordon. Jessie Gordon Bagley (nee Boyle) was born in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1869 so perhaps the name was picked as a tribute to her Scottish roots.   

Gordon Street may have been slow to get going, but a new subdivision behind homes on the northern side of the street, alongside the Waiwhakaiho River, indicates a healthy future for the Glen Avon street with easy access to both the city and the northern outlet.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

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Taranaki DP1055 Sheet 1 (1897), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP4941 Sheet 1 (1927), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP5349 Sheet 1 (1932), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP7537 Sheet 1 (1954), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP8722 Sheet 1 (1960), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)