In establishing Cradock Place, Frederick Korsten broke the template for the development of a new town. Instead of rough-hewn dwellings gently suffusing an area until steady increments in wealth enabled the increasingly wealthy elite to build houses of distinction, Cradock Place dispensed with these steps. Instead Korsten built a huge integrated enterprise which encompassed all the processes in producing salted beef. Attached to it was a majestic home on a par with the best homes in the Mother City. Korsten even owned a ship, the 500-ton Helena, to transport the finished product to its final destination being the British garrison on Mauritius.
The house was destroyed in a malicious arson attack on the 13th March 1909 whereas the impressive mill was lost due to lack of maintenance and repairs by a parsimonious town council detached from saving Por Elizabeth’s heritage.
Instead of Korsten and Cradock Place being revered in South Africa as the epitome of development, and acknowledgement of Korsten’s role in its establishment, both largely remain unknown by the majority of residents over 200 years later.
Main picture: Cradock Place before the fire of 13 March 1909. Originally the farm Papenkuilsfontein, it was the home of Frederick Korsten from 1812.
The Mill – Too little and too late
In his epic work, Port Elizabeth in Bygone Days, published in 1947, JJ Redgrave covers the fate of both the old tower and the main house. This tower was originally the mill which was utilised to grind corn. While the house was falling into complete disrepair, several interested individuals took up the cudgels on behalf of the restoration of the mill with its more recently added battlements added as a protection against attacks by marauding Xhosa warriors. During the early 1970s historically minded individuals attempted to persuade the Council to acquire the tower and then restore and preserve it as an historical monument. The committee was met by a blunt refusal by the council to “waste money on an old mill.” Pleadings by ardent historians and irate letters to the Press achieved naught in their campaign for a minute morsel from the municipal budget. Prior to the economy taking a turn for the worse precluding even a minimal allocation being voted for, the Council relented and granted a minimal amount to commence restoration in 1973 and 1974.
The removal and disposal of mountains of building rubble proved to be a monumental task. Due to the limited amount appropriated, the decision was to concentrate on the walls outlining the main dwelling house, level the surrounds, plant grass and erect suitable fences where required. Where the outline of the dwelling had disappeared, some building was done to correspond to plans available but in most cases the walls were capped to prevent further deterioration. While busy with planting the trees and erection of the plaque, the money was exhausted, and work came to a juddering halt. Despite placating public sentiment by defining the break in restoration as being a temporary pause, restoration would never recommence.
Preservation and restoration of the Main House
During the era when Korsten was residing at Cradock Place, he would entertain the “high and mighty” whenever they were in the area. During their stay, they would admire the décor and the gardens and comment on its pulchritude, an old English word for beauty, in general use during that period. Mr John Shelton, the Director of Parks and Recreation in the 1970s, describes the property as follows: “Cradock Place was a home wherein strength, utility, and beauty were cleverly blended, and it had gardens of almost idolatrous beauty, a palm shaded brook, which was artificially diverted through the gardens and groves, stocked with rare plants. There were also more formal gardens, and a courthouse filled with a profusion of roses. It is said that the building and laying out Cradock Place, the homestead became a labour of love and a source of pride.”
It was a place where portly merchant and dignified dame, fashionable ‘duck’ and fastidious lady lived lives that lacked not in incident, danced betimes and sang dainty ballads endured anxious moments and came close to the horrors when the Kafir marauder was on the warpath with ox-skin shield, kerrie and assegai.”
The house was famed for its spacious, luxuriously appointed apartments. Beautiful figured Dutch tiles from Holland graced the walls of the entrance hall. Lovely furniture came from many lands, to make it indeed a rich home and a showplace where Frederick Korsten delighted to entertain distinguished men and women, among whom were Sir John Cradock, the Lord Charles Somerset, the celebrated Dr. Barry, Sir Rufane Donkin, Sir Benjamin D’Urban, Sir Lowry Cole, Colonel Ware and the great French naturalist Lalande who spent many months there fascinated by the birdlife. The remains of the great ovens testified to the scale on which entertaining was done.
Tales of the mill
The mill proved its usefulness both in times of peace and wartime for in peace it was used for grinding of corn and in times of war it would serve as a place of refuge from marauding Xhosa and Khoikhoi warriors.
If mills could tell tales, this one would regale the questioner with a tragic piece of gossip. Kortsen employed a miller to whom he was attached. One day while the miller was engaged in repairing the sails, a sudden gust of wind caused the sails to revolve. A beam struck the miller on his head killing him instantly. So distraught was he by this tragic incident, that Korsten is reputed to have ordered the mill never to be used again. The roof and the machinery were removed, and several small turrets were built around the top on which a flagstaff was erected. Among family and friends, the tower was then called fort van de Leur. Two small cannons were mounted on it, but they were only fired by his grandsons on great occasions.
What went wrong?
Cradock Place defied all norms. When the first Settler ships arrived in May 1820, Cradock Place was already in full operation. While Korsten’s credentials as an entrepreneur had already been honed in trading, he singularly lacked the experience of how to manage a production facility. After assisting with the setting up of the facilities in the period after winning the contract in 1812, by 1820 he was packing his bags to return to Cape Town despite the operations being insolvent. Reappearing in 1826 it was to concentrate on managing the loss-making whaling business.
By the 1840s, the residents had largely forgotten about this once large operation situated on the town’s periphery. By then, the mill was no longer operational and in disrepair. What still reflected its former glory was the house. When it was destroyed by fire in 1909, the fairytale that was Cradock Place was not dimmed but extinguished. Permanently. Within a short distance from Cradock Place, homeless people in their thousands now resided so how could the Town council in clear conscience allocate money to rebuild and restore this historical monument.
If restoring No. 7 Castle Hill to its former glory is indicative of the what the art of the possible is or is not, then it needs to be acknowledged that the restoration of my great great grandfather’s house was only possible due to the limited scope of the project which was undertaken by the Port Elizabeth Historcal Association. Cradock Place was clearly on the different order of magnitude but as the ratepayers baulked at the cost, the project would never be instigated.
Scant recognition
The historical record of Cradock Place is meagre at best and that of the main actors, if you will, are equally as sparse. Little has been written about the main duo – Frederick Korsten and John Centlivres Chase with scant recognition being accorded to them. Lurking in the background was a manic diarist by the name of Samuel Eusebius Hudson. Unlike the common or garden variety diarist, Hudson would record not only the headline of the day’s story but also the driving motives and underlying issues. The repository of Hudson’s diaries is the Western Cape branch of the National Library. Edward Hudson, the great x 4 grandson of Samuel Hudson has transcribed the sections of the diary dealing with the Western Cape and it has been published by HiPSA as the Pepysian Perceptions of the Cape 1798-1828 Selections from the Western Cape Diaries of Samuel Eusebius Hudson.
A possible solution
What destruction has been inflicted upon the structures and buildings cannot be reversed and is immutable. What can be reconstructed are the gardens. Many descriptions of their design and plant life survive making it possible to replicate them.
Many paintings, drawings and photographs of its heydays are extant. This will allow the restorers to plant these pictures all over the grounds.
A lasting solution
Even though a garden paradise would evoke what Cradock Place was like two centuries ago, what is largely unknown are its inhabitants; what motivated them, how did they live their lives, how did they treat their slaves, obtain a greater understanding of the dramatis personae – Korsten, Jan Hoets, Chase et cetera. What would be great significance to historians is the publication of the portion of Hudson’s Diary relating to the Eastern Cape. As HiPSA have not expressed any desire to be involved in its printing, the transcription would have to be undertaken by a committee of local historians. As publication in print form would most probably make it unaffordable, printing as an e-book would have to be considered.
Source
The Restoration of Cradock Place by John Shelton [Looking Back, Vol. 17, No.4, Dec 1977]
The main repository of Hudson’s diaries is the Western Cape Archives and Record Service
Pepysian Perceptions of the Cape 1798-1828, Selections from the Western Cape Diaries of Samuel Eusebius Hudson edited by Edward Hudson [2024, HiPSA, Cape Town]