The majority of the streets that were established and named in the early days of the goldfield, still exist largely unchanged today. In 1867 it was quickly apparent that James
MACKAY needed to lay out streets for the new town of Shortland, to prevent the haphazard placement of tents, shops and random buildings. A standard grid layout was utilised.
A
summary of these and name changes has already been discussed. Today the example is
BAILLIE STREET, which originally ran in the north from Bella Street (just below Bird-in-Hand Hill), southwards right down to Mackay Street (at the Grey Street intersect).
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| The Street that the horse and cart is on is BAILLIE STREET |
The building above is the Thames Hospital in the early 1900s. In the 1950s when hospital redevelopment was necessary this portion of Baillie Street was closed. The part of Baillie Street that ran through the High School was also closed, to allow more development and land use by the High School. The portion of Baillie street between Mary and Sealey street was renamed as
COURT STREET, the short street that runs past the Thames Bowling Club. Today a portion of Baillie Street remains between Richmond and Mackay Street.
The photo below, shows the High School block in 1947, if you look at the different colours in the field you can see the old street
(running lower left to upper right side of photo)
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| Part of V C Browne & Son 1947 aerial photo of Thames |
