Port Elizabeth of Yore:  New Brighton from Fishing Village to Leisure Area [1820 to 1902]

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Today New Brighton is a sprawling township between the Papenkuils River to the Fishwater Flats. But it was not always so. It commenced its modern life as a modest fishing village of a Settler Party from Deal in England who had high aspirations.

For the purposes of this blog, Deal Party and New Brighton have been combined as their histories are inextricably linked together. However this blog only covers the period 1820 to 1902 with a separate blog covering the period when it was converted into a Location.

Main picture: As there  are no extant pictures of this era, I have included some related pictures instead. Photograph of a whale being cut up on North End beach. Supplied by Carol Victor of the NMBMPL.

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Horse Racing in the Bay

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

As racing horses is as old as riding these hoofed herbivorous mammals, the exact origins of horse racing are lost in the mists of time. Uitenhage preceded Port Elizabeth in establishing a Turf Club in 1815. However the first authentic records of organised racing give results of racing held in 1817 and include reports of a racing meeting held in the grounds of Cradock Place, the palatial home of Frederick Korsten on the Papenkuils River. Korsten matched his horses with those of the garrison officers from Fort Frederick.  The current Governor, Sir John Cradock, was also a keen racing man and with his support racing naturally flourished.

Main picture: Fairview Race Course 

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: New Brighton – “A Model Native Settlement”

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

Located between the Papenkuils and the Swartkops Rivers, New Brighton was established inside the Municipal Boundary of Port Elizabeth in 1901 in order to house the black residents of the inner-city locations such as Stranger’s and Gubb Locations’. The White property owners and ratepayers were pressurising the Council to relocate the Black inhabitants of the locations in the inner city area.

This blog will cover the history of New Brighton from this inflection point in the separation of residential areas.  

Main picture: Semi-detached houses erected in New Brighton in 1912

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Case of the Missing Game Birds

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

In the 1800s, before New Brighton was transformed into a “Model Native Settlement” by relocating blacks from the inner city locations to this area, this stretch of land between the mouth of the Papenkuils River and the Fishwater Flats abutting the Swartkops River, was known for the New Brighton Hotel and the Outspan, both owned by Matthew Berry.

The awarding of shooting rights to this flat vacant expanse of land and the mystery of the missing game birds would have to be settled in court.

Main picture: A duck hunter in 1890

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