A different view on current affairs & history
Having already dealt with the bathing rules, regulations and customs such as non-mixed bathing i.e. males and females swimming together – how immodest – and the areas allocated for swimming in another blog, I will now deal with the bathing events and tragic incidents in the 1880s as recalled by a Mr N. Cripps who would later be appointed as the first Speaker in the Rhodesian Parliament.
Main picture: 1894 Bathing House at the mouth of the Baakens River
Continue readingOn Saturday 1886 a group of Collegiate girls were taken to the beach adjacent to the mouth of the Baakens River and South End. In all likelihood these pupils were boarders and not day students. As no public transport was available, the girls must have walked from their accommodation down to the beach with their teachers in tow. What exacerbated the situation was that age, very few people were able to swim so when what one presumes was a rip tide occurred, none of the girls were able to swim. Even if they could, they would not have been able to deal with it successfully
Main picture: Bathing house at the mouth of the Baakens
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Given that there are no longer any residents who live in close proximity to the church, there are few parking facilities in the area and there are hardly any parishioners who attend regularly, what is the future prognosis of this icon of Port Elizabeth? Naturally, I am biased because my great-great-grandfather was its first pastor but is society in general not able to appreciate that this building is integral to the history of Port Elizabeth.
It will serve Port Elizabeth well to remember that it is not a church, probably in dire financial difficulties, that has to be saved, but a treasure of the city itself.
This blog is the history of this venerable institution.
Main picture: St. Mary’s after being reconstructed in 1896 but before the construction of the UBS building in Main Street
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