70-plus years – from horse and cart to sidecar

By David Kershaw (Occasional Columnist)

People have been very complimentary about the new P & K Supermarket and retaining some of the old brickwork to enhance the interior and to keep a link with the old building.

The old brick entrance from the carpark has received most of the comment. It is interesting that this wall has been reborn from being the back end of the old shop, to become the main entrance and it has many stories to tell.

Its main function over time has been the main Inwards Goods receiving area, but the original use was as the loading out bay. This is where the P&K horse-and-cart teams were loaded for local deliveries and unloaded from the daily Featherston Railway Station trip to collect shop stock.

The horse and cart teams came into the loading area from the stables and holding paddock which were situated on Naples Street, behind the shop. Considine Park was the main grazing area for the horses. There was also a barn and stables there.

Once in the loading bay the horses had to be held in position for loading. There were long wooden spars that fitted into the walls of the building. These spars were placed behind and in front of the horses to keep the carts stable for easy loading.

The main brick wall in the entrance reveals the old spar holes [missing bricks] which the spars were fitted into _ although they are now filled with grey concrete for new building standards [a pity].

Once the carts were loaded, they pulled out onto the square and went off on their journeys.

According to some old company accounts I have viewed there were up to sixteen horses and three carts owned by P&K. I believe the horses were all Clydesdales or part Clydesdale.

At the end of the horse era the back store area was changed. The back wall was closed off and a loading platform at truck deck height was built, the trucks backed in off the square.

Over time the floor area was sealed but the shape with a raised centre remained right up until the 80’s when hand movable bins were developed.

These required a smooth floor. Malneek Contractors came to dig the old floor out. During this job, quite a lot of large round boulders were found buried just below the surface. Perplexed as to why David K asked around and learned that the boulders were deliberately there to prevent the horses slipping [and possibly falling]. This is a very dangerous part of getting a fully loaded cart and team of large horses underway. These boulders prevented the horse’s hooves from slipping. Once the cart was out of the confined building and moving freely everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The carts were on a delivery every day of the week. Going as far as White Rock, Glendhu, Palliser Bay, Kahautara and Featherston Railway.

Considine Park Stables

Pain & Kershaw Ltd owned half of the Considine Park area at one time. The land and stables were at the Kitchener Street end. They were a large wooden building which I remember being full of hay.

I remember my father Harry telling me a story that his father JW (Jack) had heard a whisper that petrol was going to increase in price. Petrol in those times was sold in boxes holding two four-gallon tins. Jack decided to speculate, so he bought a lot of boxes of petrol, filling the now unused stables and a few other sheds he had with boxes of petrol. Thank goodness there was not a fire

as it would have been huge and very spectacular!

(One of the first motor vehicles used to replace the horses-and-drays after WW2 was a motorbike with a sidecar. – Ed.)

The land owned by the company was gifted to the council, following the Second World War. It was intended that the land become a park and that a war memorial be built. Council finances prevented any memorial being built and the only local acknowledgement of WW2 is the entrance gate at Jellicoe Street. This memorial entrance was paid for by the John Riddiford family.

The council gave the stables to a local who demolished them and used the recycled timber to build a house that stands on New York Street. That local was the council dog ranger (whose name I forget). He was a bit of a hippy and owned a huge Deer Hound that used to ride on the back of his Ute. He

would drive around and the Deer Hound would leap off the Ute to catch all the wandering dogs for the ranger.