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
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Prior to the 20th century, hunting was both a sport and a source of protein. The early explorers and adventurers in the 18th and early 19th century all reported encountering huge herds of elephants and even buffaloes roaming around in the vicinity of Kragga Kamma. By the time of the arrival of the Trekboers in the mid-eighteen century, most of the large game had been exterminated except for a patch near Alexandria.
Now it was the turn of the small game to be decimated all in the name of sport.
Main picture: PE Hunt Club on Willowby Farm, now Glen Hurd, owned by George Parkin
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The first specimen of a marine mammal housed at the museum was the skeleton of a sperm whale caught in Algoa Bay in 1897. This is the information provided by the curator Greg Hofmeyer.
Main picture: Head of the sperm whale
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Port Elizabeth’s earliest water supply came from the Shark River at Happy Valley and the Donkin Stream next to the Donkin Reserve. As the city started to grow in its early days of development the demand for water far exceeded this meager supply. After a competition held by the Port Elizabeth city council in 1862 to find proposals to supply the city with water, a weir and small dam was built in the Van Stadens River. This was later followed by the Bulk River (1903) and the Sand River (1907) dams in the Elands River Valley, both which can be seen driving along the Elands River Road. Of course these dams have since been replaced as the main supply dams by the Kouga, Churchill and Mpofu dams. Both the Sand River and Bulk River are tributaries of the Elands River which in turn at its concourse with the Kwazunga River forms the Swartkops River.
This blog is a photographic gallery of the construction of the dams on these tributaries of the Elands River based upon photos supplied by Robert Pringle.
Main picture: Junction of the Sand & Palmiet Rivers – Flood in October 1904
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Prior to WW2, Port Elizabeth hosted a prestigious motorcycle race known as the PE 200. This was the culmination of the development of motor cycle racing since the first race held as a 60 mile relay on the 7th August 1922 on the Kragga Kamma circuit.
The early engines on the motorcycles were satisfactory for level or downhill riding but as soon as a hill was encountered, the rider had to pedal to assist the bike’s ascent of the hill. But this was only the start of what would ultimately become the power machines of today.
This blog covers the development of motorcycle racing from that date until the Second World War as well as the development of the early bikes.
Main photo: Winners of the PE 200 on 1st January 1958
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Most visitors to this tea garden / B&B / function venue do not appreciate that fact that portion of the buildings could represent the oldest building in the Port Elizabeth district. This is the untold story of its origin and its future owners.
Main picture: Chelsea Cottage painted by Waldon Arbouin Harries in 1855
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South End, as we know it, was a farm, Papenbiesjesfontein, extending from the Baaken’s River to about the S-bend at Humewood. According to J.J. Redgrave in Port Elizabeth in Bygone Days, it was granted by Lord Charles Somerset in 1820 to Gerhardus Oosthuizen. His widow bought the farm from the joint heirs for £135 sterling and subsequently married a tall, bearded Hollander named J.A. Rudolph. When he died, she married William Gardner and only after her death in 1859, was the estate sub divided into building allotments.
Main photo: Baakens Valley. C1881. In the background are three cottages (now Harris Street). Below them the old homestead of the Board family. To the right the steam laundry, opened May 1877. In the centre the property of John McWilliams (at one time a hotel). In the foreground the property of John Harrison Clark
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The photo above shows what type of stadium a DA run municipality versus an ANC run municipality could erect at approximately the same cost. On the left is a R13m stadium provided by the Saldanha Municipality whereas on the right is what the ANC run municipality of Enoch Mgijima was able to construct with R15m. At a guess, the ANC stadium actually cost less than a tenth of the R15m and maybe even as low as a hundredth.
Probably NO on all four counts
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
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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