On the southern coast of Port Elizabeth lies a hamlet barely touched by civilisation. Comprising less than 100 cottages, it is partially a retirement village as well as a holiday resort. Unlike the endless sandy beaches of Algoa Bay, it comprises shingly gullies and rock pools. Instead of the perfect waves for surfers, theses gullies are safe even for toddlers. This blog chronicles the early history of this timeless hamlet with its Norfolk pines oblivious to the sea breezes. This is where I learnt to swim, to dive, to fish – which I never enjoyed – and to explore the inter-tidal zone and rock pools.
Main picture: Motor vehicles on the commonage in front of The Hut Tearoom at Schoenmakerskop. This photograph was originally hanging in my parent’s house at 57 Mowbray Street, Newton Park
The First Buildings in 1889
The exact date of the construction of the first buildings in Schoenmakerskop cannot be ascertained with certainty nor are they still standing but what they were has been recorded for posterity. These buildings in the eastern portion of Schoenmakerskop comprised three structures representing the Main Convict Station encompassing two houses, one for the Officer in Charge of Works and the other for the Superintendent of Convicts, while the third set of buildings comprised rough stone huts for accommodating the convicts. These huts were located where the children’s playground and social tennis club would later stand. At the beginning of the 20th century, only the Convict Station, overseen by Mr. Sydney Webber, and his large wooden house overlooking “Sandy Bay”, were in evidence.
In addition an outstation had been established at Governor’s Kop, an eminence on the eastern boundary of Claas Kraal – now Bushy Park – named after the Governor Sir Bartle Frere who scrambled to the top to view the extent of the Gulchways driftsands.
The Convict Station were probably the only buildings erected for several years.
The closest approximation of the date of their construction is sometime after October 1872 when the Harbour Board initiated a project to stabilise the sand dunes around the southern portion of Port Elizabeth. William Stephen Webber was appointed to oversee this project. To assist him in the execution of his duties, he was allocated up to 300 convicts. It was for these prisoners, for which this Conviction Station was constructed.
The convicts took part in the work of halting the suffocating driftsands that were menacing the town and harbour of Port Elizabeth. To do so, a barricade was erected at Gulchways, just west of Schoenmakerskop. These channels acted like funnels. This sand had been the main source of sand being blown inland for years, perhaps centuries. The threat was ended by Joseph Storr Lister who had a railway line built via Shark River in Humewood in order to carry the town’s refuse, which was spread over this area. To impede the progress of the sand, windbreaks were erected and Port Jackson willow, eucalyptus trees and Hottentot figs were planted.
The date on which this station was “abandoned” being 1893 is only known due to the fact that the Reverend P.R. Moffet of St. Phillips church had his services of ministering to these prisoners terminated during this year as the convicts had been relocated to the Lazaretto next to Shark River in Humewood.
During this period two other houses were constructed on the eastern side of the village; one was for Sydney Webber and the other for the Diedrichs family.
A diagram from a survey carried out in 1885 by Robert Pinchin, a Government Surveyor, indicates three underground springs on the Schoenmakerskop erf with the spring near the Convict Station being marked as having a particularly strong flow. This is probably the reason why this area was initially selected for the erection of the Convict Station. The water flow was sufficient to supply not only the convicts but also serve to water a large vegetable garden non-stop. This water was tested and found to be pure. All that needed to be done was to cut away a portion of the hill face and insert a pipe. I am curious why all the literature describes this set of buildings pretentiously as a Conviction Station rather than the more mundane “prison.” According to Voullaire in his memoirs when the station was opened, the convicts were marched out two by two handcuffed to an “ox wagon trek chain.”
At the turn of the century, the only building in the area was the convict station.
The only other building relating to this period, is a wool washery which lay to the east of the village. Apparently some of the walls are still visible. However the area became a popular place for day trippers.
Road to nowhere
In the late 19th century, a track – some writers pretentiously call it a road – from Schoenmakerskop to Walmer was constructed. The direction was deliberately built from Schoenmakerskop as that is where the convicts were housed. As constructed progressed, so did the rate of construction progressively decline. Less work could be done in a day the further that the convicts had to walk to their place of work. With them they carried a “goodly” supply of water, enough for a day.
As limestone was readily available beneath the sand, this was used to construct a rough lime stone road with intermittent sandy patches. In the early years people ventured down this track in ox-wagons as well as on donkey and horse drawn carts. Having an uneven surface, speed was restricted. Visitors would leave Port Elizabeth very early in the morning and only return to town in the late afternoon after watering, and feeding their horses at Schoenmakerskop.
By about 1922, a gravel road was laid out and then finally, years later, it was tarred.
Marine Drive was officially opened on 6th December 1922.
Camping site
According to Joan Shaw, Schoenmakerskop now gained prominence as a seasonal camping site with Christmas and Easter being the most popular times. These camp sites were mainly situated where water was available from hillside springs and where gullies suitable for swimming were situated.
Based upon these assumptions, probably the campsite in most demand would have been beside the pool known as “The Tanks” which still remains the most popular swimming pool along this stretch of coast. The usual modus operandi would be for the campers to pitch their tents close beside the shingle beach near to a spring.
A simple water supply was constructed by the Longworth and McWilliam’s families. Water from the springs was stored in galvanised iron tanks and then piped to outlets as required. In later years, this water reticulation system had to be dismantled when the village of Schoenmakerskop was proclaimed as camping was no longer permitted on State owned land.
Birth of the village
In 1906, a Mr Gibbon requested permission from the authorities to erect a holiday shack above the high water mark on Crown Land as it was then known. Apparently, part of this original bungalow still stands in Periwinkle Lane. Five generations of Gibbons have grown up in this area.
Mrs Joy Neary avers that her father, Arthur Gibbon, used to camp there during the holidays. When he approached Mr Dwyer, the forestry officer in charge of the Driftsands area, and requested permission to rent a piece of ground on which to build a bungalow. Mr Dwyer agreed but felt that more people should be given the opportunity of renting plots as well. As a result, 15 plots of 75 square feet each were laid out.
The rent for plots was £1 per annum until the land was formally subdivided and sold in 1918. This was probably the beginning of the present residential area.
In order to create a township at Schoenmakerskop, a portion of the Crown Land known as De Duinen had to be formally surveyed and proclaimed. To this end, Mr George Oswald Smith, the government surveyor was appointed to do so. In October 1916, he surveyed the area, beaconed it, named it and drew up a plan for the village of Schoenmakerskop.
Close on the heels of Government Land Surveyor, G.O.Smith’s survey, architects Jones & McWilliams submitted a blueprint in which they proposed that the area be converted into an entertainment arena with a casino, promenade, restaurants and much more. After the proposal was disclosed in the Eastern Province Herald of the 17th March 1917, it drew howls of protests and a very unfavourable response. The respondents felt that Schoenmakerskop would lose its charm as a picnic spot and be transformed into a glorified Eastbourne or Torquay. Its scenic tranquillity has been fanatically guarded and the idea of its conversion was anathema to the residents.
This would not be the only occasion on which such a proposal was mooted.
Finally, on the 17th October 1918, all the plots at Schoenmakerskop were auctioned for sale.
As all previous structures, being either fishing or holiday apartments, had been illegally constructed without formal permission, these were sold together with the plots on which they stood. Plots with pre-existing structures totalled seventeen, all on the western part of Schoenmakerskop. Prices ranged from £7 to £56.
Of these, my grandmother, Elizabeth Daisy McCleland, purchased three contiguous plots. On the middle one, she erected a Tearoom known as The Hut.
Marine Drive was officially opened on 6th December 1922. This was to be a festive occasion with Schoenmakerskop making its mark on the consciousness of the inhabitants of Port Elizabeth. On this day, it was arranged that a procession of cars would depart from the Town Hall, travel in convoy around Marine Drive and then stop at Daisy McCleland’s Tearoom in Schoenmakerskop for some homemade buns & tea. The Hut Tearoom, as it was inelegantly known, hosted the crème-de-la-crème of Port Elizabeth’s most prominent citizens to tea.
After the initial flurry
Pictures of the original shacks and houses, reveals them to be mainly wooden structures. Over the years, most of these buildings have been replaced with brick buildings.
In sleepy villages, nothing much stirs. Time treads its weary way not seeming to notice. On the 17th September 1930, the village was to be shaken from its slumber when the inhabitants heard the ghastly news that one of its residents, Francis Joseph Walker McCleland, my uncle, had been shot by an intruder to his mother’s tearoom and was in a critical condition in the Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth. Two days later on the 19th September, he was to succumb to his injuries.
Apart from this excitement, not much else has changed over the years apart from drinking water now being piped in and the “Long Drop” and “Bucket” toilet system being supplanted by septic tanks.
The second attempt to destroy this village with its old-world charm was in the 1930s when a Mr Richardson, a well-known and successfull local Jewish entrepreneur, whose main business was wool processing and wool exports wanted to expand his business by adding an entertainment division. To this end, he approached my grandmother, Daisy Elizabeth McCleland, with a lucrative proposal. As the owner of three plots opposite the main green outside her tearoom, this was prime land and integral to the proposal that he would present to her.
As my grandmother was a widow bringing up six children singlehandedly, Richardson was in a strong bargaining position. Richardson unravelled a huge set of blueprints of his architects. These bore the drawings of Richardson’s proposal. He patiently revealed his proposal which included the construction of a casino, promenade, restaurants et al. The stern determined woman gave this proposal a frosty reception as she viewed that this development would destroy Schoenmakerskop’s charm. In any case, she reasoned that her home-made buns were superior to mass produced bakery buns. On being sternly rejected, Richardson brusquely informed her that he would then erect a hotel and holiday complex at Seaview. As my grandmother had predicted, this development would never be the stunning success that Richardson envisaged.
It would be another three decades before another entrepreneur would present a similar development proposal but just as before, the proposal elicited a similar negative response.
By 1974, there were seventy houses at Schoenmakerskop. In 1962/3, “Sappershoek” was erected to house retired servicemen.
Over the years, Schoenmakerskop has only been able to claim one noteworthy resident, the playwright Athol Fugard.
The Sacramento
In 1977, Schoenies came into the limelight again. In that year, one of the great feats of marine salvage began. David Allen and his partner Gerry van Niekerk, having established the site of the wreck of the Santissimo Sacramento, began work on the site just west of the village.
The Sacramento, a highly prized man o’ war with 60 fixed cannon, was heavily loaded with a cargo of brass cannon destined for the Portuguese-held districts of India. In fact, one of the cannons carried an inscription from its maker (famous gunsmith Antonio Backer) bearing the name of Antonio Telesdemenez, the Portuguese governor of India at the time.
The ship was sunk in 1647 on a voyage from Goa in India to Portugal, carrying a cargo of cannons from the famous Bocarro Foundry in Macao, China. Meeting heavy weather on the east coast, she was wrecked on the rocks at Gordon’s Bay, now renamed Cannon Bay. By the time she hit the rocky coastline, she had a badly damaged rudder and her sails were in tatters. David and Gerry recovered forty bronze cannons, one of which was in pristine condition. This one was declared a national monument.
The legend of the wreck of the Sacramento has many dramatic parts, one of which is the march of the 72 survivors up the coast towards a port in Mozambique, from where they hoped to be transported back to Portugal.
In 1993 the Sacramento Cannon was unveiled on the main green at Schoenmakerskop by his worship the mayor. The cannon was donated by Cmdr. Charles Allen and stands as a memorial to his son Dave whose outstanding work in undersea diving led to the discovery of this inestimable treasure.
The distance from Algoa Bay (site of the modern-day Port Elizabeth) to the haven in Mozambique was nearly 1400km. The Sacramento survivors stayed on the beach near the wreck site for 11 days before beginning their pathetic trudge up the coast. Along the way, their numbers dwindled to 9 souls.
As they walked, they came across two other wreck sites of ill-fated Portuguese vessels: the Nossa Senhora de Belem and the Atalaya. More than four weeks into their trek, they met up with a large contingent of survivors of the wreck of the Atalaya. Eventually, 127 people from the wrecks of the Sacramento and Atalaya made it to Lourenco Marques (now Maputo).
Derivation of the village’s name
The one remaining mystery relates to the origin of the name Schoenmakerskop – literally Shoe Makers’ Hill. The genesis of this name has been lost in the mists of time but various theories exist, none of which can be substantiated. Of one thing there is unanimity. The word Kop must have been derived from the highest hill behind the Sacramento Restaurant but whether a cobbler ever resided in the area is pure speculation.
The one suggestion which is eminently plausible but has not yet gained credence was provided by the late Mrs Pamela ffoliott, an eminent Port Elizabeth historian. She averred that the name derived from a Mr J. Schumacher, a Batavian soldier who was also an artist. The name was erroneously misspelt “Schoenmaker”. In 1776, Hendrik Swellengrebel, son of the Governor of the Cape, travelled through the Colony as far as the Fish River. Schumacher accompanied him and made sketches along the way. Mrs ffoliott believes that Schoenmakerskop was named in his honour.
The one theory that has proved to be false was that convicts from the station that was established there in 1889, made shoes and that fragments of leather that have been found, conform this. However a letter from the Secretary of the Attorney’s office of the Cape Colony indicates that the name was already in existence. The text of the letter is as follows:
Another explanation for the name was advanced by the Mr Harold Baydon Smith, former owner of No. 7
Castle Hill. He stated that in his youth at the turn of the century, it was generally agreed that Schoenmakerskop took its name from that of a fugitive seaman who had his dwelling in a shallow cave at the side of the hill. Mr Werth claimed that history made mention of a fugitive seaman who had been detained in Namaqualand but was subsequently pardoned. However no dates are given in connection with these statements. The name is not listed in Colin Graham Botha’s “Place Names in the Cape Province”. In the book, “The Story of the Port Elizabeth Divisional Council 1856-1956″, by JJ Redgrave, the name is mentioned only once in the list of seaside resorts established by the Council.
Sources
Schoenmakerskop by Alfred Porter (Looking Back Volume 32.Number 2, September 1993)
Schoenmakerskop by Joan Shaw (Privately published, undated)
Schoenmakerskop by Jean King (Looking Back, Volume 41, November 2002)
Recollections of Life at Schoenmakerskop
By Jean L King (nee Young)
As a child our family home was 13 Newington Road, Port Elizabeth. My recollections of early childhood are varied, but I was vaguely aware of a house being built for us at Schoenmakerskop. Initially it was intended as a holiday home but 13 Newington Road was sold and it seems to me that one minute we were in Port Elizabeth and the next at Schoenmakerskop. Everything in between is a blur apart from the fact that our father travelled to business in PE every day.
The house was built by Mr Murray of Murray and Stewart and was a new concept in house building for the 1920’s in that it was built of reinforced concrete rather than bricks. (Mr Murray built a similar house a little further down the road). A bad storm in the early days of our arrival resulted in the front verandah having to be enclosed with folding doors.
Life at Schoenmakerskop was a carefree affair. We did our fair share of building sandcastles and sea bathing and kept a few Rhode Island Red hens to provide us with eggs. Mary, my sister, and I were not old enough to receive formal school education, so it was arranged that Miss Helen Gray, a keen horsewoman, would ride to Schoenmakerskop from her home in 8th Avenue, Walmer twice a week in the morning to give us the rudiments of an education. When we were old enough we were sent to Collegiate School for Girls in Port Elizabeth. We travelled by car, as there were no buses.
Some memorable characters in the local population added spice to life. Mr and Mrs Pritchard lived next door. Mr Pritchard had owned a factory in the Baakens Valley that made candles until it was swept away by floodwaters. At Schoenies, to the delight of the children, he turned his hand to making ice-cream. Mrs Hatcher, who had a heart of gold, was easily the most eccentric resident. She introduced the wireless to Schoenmakerskop and as a family we spent many a Friday night with the headphones listening to programmes on the radio. Mrs Hatcher enjoyed bathing and she wore a floral bathing cap, cotton stockings and bathing shoes with her swimsuit.
The Neville Cooks (see the grant) kept to themselves and were known to the village children as “Never Cooks” as no smoke was ever seen rising from their chimney.
Dr and Mrs Roger’s house “Sou West” did much to improve the appearance of Schoenmakerskop architecturally.
“Daddy” Woods was the oldest inhabitant at that time. He lived with his wife Jessie, sons Clarrie and Raymond and daughter, Olga and took a great interest in passing ships or anything of interest.
During the holidays the population at Schoenies increased noticeably. Billy Mangold and his family occupied “Sondela” – a house with unusual architectural features. They possessed a mechanical Christmas tree that rotated and played “Silent Night” to the joy of all the children in the village.
The Bowren family home backed onto the Young’s property and were known to them from their Port Elizabeth days. It would be doing an injustice to the Girl Guides if I did not mention that in the Thirties they had a campsite at the back of the houses one sees on entering Schoenmakerskop. A wooden building served as headquarters and latrines during their Easter camp.
Dr Leith and his family were frequent holiday visitors. He removed my tonsils after my first year at university in 1935/6 and I was restored to health and my senses as I had been set to quit. I graduated at Rhodes University in 1937 with a double first, became a fully-fledged teacher in1938 and started teaching at my ‘alma mater’ in 1939.
Watermelon parties, tenniquoit parties and Sunday afternoon teas were part of life at Schoenmakerskop. It seems a long time ago but I remember it as if it were yesterday.
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Port Elizabeth of Yore Cora Terrace
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Port Elizabeth of Yore King’s Beach
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Port Elizabeth of Yore Russell Road
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Sources:
Looking Back dated November 2002
Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the End of 1945 by Margaret Harradine
Darling..would you like a string of pearls or a house at Schoenmakerskop? By Joan Shaw
Recent photos of Schoenmakerskop are by Luc Hosken off the Friends of Schoenmakerskop Facebook page
Love this blog! Enjoyed this post on Schoenies and was delighted to see our family pic – the campers in 1937. Jimmy McNamre and the Williams girls, Dorothy, Gwen and Jean. The man in the right is Teddy Gamble and one in the front Ginger, Jimmy’s best mate, can’t recall his surname.
Glad that you enjoyed it
Hi Sue
Do you perhaps have some pictures of Schoenies in the old days?
Regards
Dean McCleland
Hi Dean
Loved this article! Was also delighted (like Sue) to see the camping pic – my grandmother and grandfather were Gwen & Ted as featured in the picture! Where did you obtain the image?- I am sure I have a similar one in one of the old family albums and I recognise the writing too. If I find any Schoenies pictures I will get in touch again