Pinny Drive (Eltham)

When travellers leave Eltham and head out on Eltham Road, they encounter a bridge and Burke’s Hill, just beyond the town boundary. Prior to the 1940s the road alignment at the base of the hill was very different to the straight road it is now.

Eltham Road used to cross the Waingongoro River in the area that is now Pinny Drive, then for a short distance followed a course on the lower land that is immediately to the right of its present route. Only then did it make a steep climb up Burke’s Hill.

In the 1940s plans were finally put in place to straighten out the road by building a new bridge, in the present location, over the river. The bridge plans were approved in 1945. It would be some years before the work was completed, however.

The section of the old road that was bypassed became a dead-end. At the time there were three houses on it, a rifle club and a council depot. Years later, people complained that the road needed a new name.

An eye was cast to the history of the area. Following World War One, William Pinny owned land in the immediate vicinity. One of his sons, Len, subsequently worked as an engineer with the Eltham Borough Council for many years. It was decided Pinny Drive was a suitable name for the old section of Eltham Road.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.