Beaconsfield Road sign (2021). Brian Beer. Word on the Street image collection.
Beaconsfield Road sign (2021). Brian Beer. Word on the Street image collection.
Why might a cyclist on a racing bike, on Beaconsfield Road, make you think of the rock band Cream? It depends on the bike’s gears.
In 1877 Albert Fookes, the founder of Midhirst, wrote to the Waste Lands Board asking that a road into his proposed new township be named Beaconsfield Road. In justification, he said the name would meet the wishes of several new settlers in the area.
In this claim he would have been correct. It was named after the Earl of Beaconsfield, better known as Benjamin Disraeli. Britain’s prime minister in the 1870s, Disraeli was also a prolific author and one of the great figures of public life in Britain at the time. Perhaps his most significant legacy is his role in founding the modern Conservative party.
When Beaconsfield Road was named, much of it was still being cut through native bush. A sawmill was set up and operated profitably for several years. Later, when pasture replaced the bush, a dairy factory was built near the intersection with Stanley Road. Three houses were built nearby for staff. Soon a school was opened.
The introduction of the milk tanker rendered the factory uneconomic. It closed in 1958 and the houses were moved to Midhirst.
When the road was sealed in the 1920s, a Stratford cycling club started organising races. The circuit, comprising East Road, Beaconsfield Road and Mountain Road, was about 19 kilometres long. Often the cycle races were over three laps.
The racing bikes of today are probably fitted with derailleur gears. The accidental miss-pronunciation of that name led to the title of Cream’s influential 1967 album ‘Disraeli Gears’. Although separated by nearly one hundred years, Albert Fookes and Cream were influenced by the same man.
This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.
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