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Roads and Bridges in Ellesmere
Description
NameRoads and Bridges in Ellesmere
DescriptionThe first routes for European settlers across Ellesmere were often marked by a farmer ploughing a furrow across the countryside from e.g. Christchurch with a single furrow.
Later travellers tended to follow this furrow as the plains were lacking in features that guided a traveller.
In some parts of the countryside water was scarce and so it was important to be able to follow tracks to find the few water holes.
The main routes were laid out by the surveyors intially, and then as each rural section was purchased roads were surveyed to ensure access.
At one stage the Chief Surveyor asked farmers to plough a furrow on each side of the surveyed road so that people would know where the road was.
In some places it was dry enough so that the road did not need to be mounded but in other places ditches were dug on either side of the road and the spoil used to raise the level of the road.
There a numerous newspaper adverts calling for tenders by the Ellesmere Road Board for people to add shingle to the road surfaces.
Bridges were a later addition and there were several instances of people trying to cross flooded waterways and in some cases, drowning occurred.
DescriptionThe first routes for European settlers across Ellesmere were often marked by a farmer ploughing a furrow across the countryside from e.g. Christchurch with a single furrow. Later travellers tended to follow this furrow as the plains were lacking in features that guided a traveller.
In some parts of the countryside water was scarce and so it was important to be able to follow tracks to find the few water holes.
The main routes were laid out by the surveyors intially, and then as each rural section was purchased roads were surveyed to ensure access.
At one stage the Chief Surveyor asked farmers to plough a furrow on each side of the surveyed road so that people would know where the road was.
In some places it was dry enough so that the road did not need to be mounded but in other places ditches were dug on either side of the road and the spoil used to raise the level of the road.
There a numerous newspaper adverts calling for tenders by the Ellesmere Road Board for people to add shingle to the road surfaces.
Bridges were a later addition and there were several instances of people trying to cross flooded waterways and in some cases, drowning occurred.
Collection
Photographer T J Pickering
Courtesy of Stuart Brannigan
Ellesmere Historical Society EHS-3673
Connections
CollectionRoutes of Travel in EllesmereOrganisationEllesmere Historical Society
OrganisationEllesmere Historical SocietyRoads and Bridges in Ellesmere. Selwyn Stories, accessed 25/05/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/6408