Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today / Opinion

Michael Fowler: Windsor Park ever evolving over years

By Michael Fowler
Hawkes Bay Today·
12 Aug, 2017 12:00 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

REGULAR CHANGES: Windsor Park, Hastings, as it looked in the 1930s.

REGULAR CHANGES: Windsor Park, Hastings, as it looked in the 1930s.

Opinion

I wrote recently of the Windsor Park campground's history, now here is a little more of the history of Windsor Park.

Thomas Tanner created a park of 44 acres (18 hectares) in 1885 when he subdivided 1000 acres of his Riverslea Estate for sale.

The land which formed Riverslea Estate was leased, then subsequently purchased from, Maori in the 1870s.

The Park (as it was known) was at that stage bounded on two sides by the Mangapouri Creek.

Pinus radiata was planted on 15 acres by Thomas Tanner, and willows alongside the creek to form "a charmingly cool retreat on hot, summer days".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A clear area of 20 acres was left for recreation, such as a cricket ground.

When Thomas Tanner's financial difficulties in 1889 led to the sale of the Riverslea Estate to a syndicate of three gentlemen, The Park was included.

One of these men was John Beatson (1843-1931), who bought The Park in the early 1890s after the Hastings Borough Council could not afford to purchase it from the syndicate.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It was from John Beatson that The Park received the name which lasted about 40 years - Beatson's Park.

Beatson's Park was sold by John Beatson to the council in 1912, with the settlement payment of £4000 (2017: $651,000) to be made in April 1932. Interest was payable at 4 per cent per annum.

However, when the Audit Office said the purchase by the council of Beatson's Park on extended terms was illegal, a parliamentary sitting in 1916 validated the transaction under the Washing Up Act.

As the pinus radiata trees had matured, the council felled the pine plantation in 1919, to be sold as firewood.

The Parkvale Golf Club was given rights in 1924 to form a golf course where the pine plantation was.

Tree stumps had to be removed by the club before they could create their nine-hole course.

Grazing rights to the park were held by the golf club, so they put sheep on the park area.

The course closed in December 1946.

Also in 1924, thanks to the efforts of the Parkvale Progressive Society, a swimming pool was created at the park.

The council designed the pool, and paid some of the costs to build it, in addition to the public fundraising.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

This pool was enlarged in 1934 by the council.

During the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, unemployment work schemes transformed a section of the Makirikiri Creek into a boating lake and made other improvements.

The Art Deco-styled bridges that still exist today were completed in 1934 and designed by council employee Ernest Garnett.

They were built from Hastings CBD rubble of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

Tennis courts were provided for by the council in 1932 for the newly formed Parkvale Tennis Club.

In 1935, Beatson's Park was renamed Windsor Park on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of King George V. Other names had been promoted, such as Gallipoli Park.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

During the late 1930s, there was a severe shortage of accommodation in Hastings, so the council provided some transit housing buildings.

In 1946, two of these buildings were transferred to the camp area.

A children's playground and paddling pool were added near the camp during the late 1930s.

Several properties (including Miss Shaw's orchard) were purchased to extend Windsor Park around 1946 over the Grove Rd end.

This added about 27 acres to Windsor Park.

The Windsor Lodge building was built on the old orchard area owned by Miss Shaw in 1951.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Skate Park was added in 1952.

• If anyone knows about the Hastings Beautifying Society, of which the late Dr Michael Bostock was a member, please contact me 027 4521 056 or by email.

• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a chartered accountant, speaker and writer of history

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Hastings drinking water and waste water upgrades continue

Hawkes Bay Today

Actor returns to roots with national tour stop in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

Getting young crims back to class: 'We need a holiday, they keep turning up'


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hastings drinking water and waste water upgrades continue
Hawkes Bay Today

Hastings drinking water and waste water upgrades continue

Hastings has grown faster than expected in recent years.

13 Jul 10:13 PM
Actor returns to roots with national tour stop in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Actor returns to roots with national tour stop in Hawke's Bay

13 Jul 10:02 PM
Getting young crims back to class: 'We need a holiday, they keep turning up'
Hawkes Bay Today

Getting young crims back to class: 'We need a holiday, they keep turning up'

13 Jul 06:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP