William John Huggins was a well-known painter of maritime scenes of which three owned by the Nelson Mandela Art Museum are probably the only ones in his extensive portfolio which relate to Port Elizabeth. Like all paintings of the nascent recently conceived new town of Port Elizabeth, all paintings of whatever nature whether by a skilled craftsman or a dabbler are invaluable as they provide the sparse record of those early days.

Main picture: Painting of whaling off the coast in Algoa Bay during 1832 by William John Huggins with No 7 Castle Hill visible on the brow of the hill

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Having lived in Port Elizabeth until 1980, I had heard about Savage & Lovemore as they were so prolific but what I only discovered recently was that the famous so-called Third Avenue Dip was the brainchild of David Bailee Lovemore of Savage and Lovemore fame.

This blog is a verbatim transcript of the story of this iconic firm as recounted in the family history entitled Lovemores Then and Now – June 2000.

Main picture: David Lovemore with his first bulldozer

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In David Raymer’s book, Streams of Life covering the water supply to the Port Elizabeth / Uitenhage area, he states that “A number of tales have arisen about the artesian water coming out at the sea near the Coega River mouth.” Is this merely a myth or is it a fact?

After recently reading CJ Skead’s description of hot water artesian springs on Amanzi farm in the Sunday’s valley, I was reminded of David’s claim in his book.

Main picture: Operation of an artesian spring

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Over the first 150 years of Port Elizabeth’s existence, numerous dynamics played themselves out as regards the composition of the workforce. Initially the fault line related to the occupation referred to as Beach Labourers.

The first radical change in employment practices in the 20^th century was the employment of Afrikaner migrants as labourers and unskilled workers in the motor industry. Gradually they in turn were displaced by blacks in these categories of work with the Afrikaners moving into semi-skilled occupations and the English speakers rising to occupy supervisory and highly skilled artisan positions.

Over the 150-year span, females did not advance significantly in the employment hierarchy except for those occupations requiring females only such as nursing and teaching.

Main picture: The Edworks Shoe Factory in the 1950s. Note that all of the factory floor blue collar workers were white females

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