Port Elizabeth of Yore Archives - Page 53 of 72

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Slavery-Born Free, Life of Servitude

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 30 March 2018 0 Comment

Whilst the Cape Colony might well have possessed slaves, the establishment of Port Elizabeth came at the culmination of the emancipation efforts by the British government. Hence the prevalence and practice of slavery was not of such great importance as it was closer to Cape Town.

In 1807 the British government banned the sale of slaves to all her colonies, including the Cape. This meant that no more slaves (from any destination) could be sent to work in the Cape. However, those who were already in the Cape continued to work as slaves until 1834 when all slaves in the British Empire were to be emancipated. Many of the slaves chose to remain on with their owners while some started a new life in and around Cape Town working as tradesmen. Gradually these people became absorbed into the Cape community.

Main picture: The reality of slavery

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Bus Intrudes into the World of Trams

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 22 March 2018 0 Comment

It was not that the bus was not available for use by 1913 in Port Elizabeth, but probably that the Tramways were myopically fixated on the tram as the primary mode of transport. The buses that they did possess, were instead used for excursions and not as an extension of their tram business.

This was about to change. Given the buses flexibility regarding routes, they gave the Tramways a run for their money. Then the inevitable occurred. The Tramways adopted the motto, “If we cannot beat, join them.”

Main picture: Buses and trams co-existed for numerous years

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Early Years of Electric Trams

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 21 March 2018 1 Comment

Far be it for me to belittle the contribution made by the horse-drawn tram in the transport of residents within the town of 15,000 people, but they had severe limitations given the topography of the town. It was mere wishful thinking that this conveyance could ever service the hill area.

Progress was swift. In 1881, horse drawn trams were introduced and sixteen years later in 1897, electric trams made their appearance and by 1913 buses had been introduced, albeit initially for excursions. The latter two services progressed in tandem until the flexibility of bus routes without the need for tracks, predetermined that the bus would ultimately prevail.

Main picture: Electric tram in Main Street travelling to Russell Road

Port Elizabeth of Yore: What Happened to the Rietbok?

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 19 March 2018 1 Comment

On Monday 13^th March 1967, a Vickers Viscount 818, on a scheduled fight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg, via East London and Bloemfontein, crashed into the sea somewhere off Kayser’s Beach, near East London.

What train of events was the cause of this crash? Why did twenty passengers and five crew vanish without a trace?

Main picture: Vickers Viscount 818

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Concentration Camps and Refugees during the Boer War

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 15 March 2018 2 Comments

During the latter stages of the Boer War and the defeat of the conventional Boer forces, the fighting devolved into a guerrilla war with the open veldt and the scattered Boer farmhouses providing the logistics system. In order to sever this supply line, the farm houses were torched, and the animals slaughtered, in terms of the Scorched Earth policy, while the wives and children were placed in concentration camps. Without this sustenance, all the Boer forces apart from the bitter einders opted to surrender.

Main picture: Memorial at the North End Cemetery to those who died at Port Elizabeth’s Concentration Camp

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Airfields, Airports & Aerodromes

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 15 March 2018 7 Comments

During the age of biplanes, aerodromes, airfields and airports were intimate places where family and their friends could view the passengers boarding while standing beside the plane. Today their signature features are formality, impersonality and huge scale, the very antithesis of the personal touch. This impersonality is exacerbated by the hub-and-spoke approach of air flight today.

Without radar, navigational aids such as ILS or concrete runways, these aerodromes served these fragile midget planes.

Main picture: Avro Anson F1 1143 based at 42 Air School

Collegiate School: The War Years

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 12 March 2018 0 Comment

It was not only during the six long years of WW2 that the “routine and normal” had all but disappeared, but also thereafter, with its continuing shortages and years of hardship. What the war years did engender, was a sense of connectedness, solidarity and responsibility. It was this civic mindedness which drove the community to surmount these challenges.

How did those years, fraught with possible dangers, or loss of a brother, father or even uncle in the crucible of war up north, as it was euphemistically referred to, affect one school at the heart of the community in Port Elizabeth?

Main picture: Senior Collegiate Girls School, Bird Street, May 1924

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Era of Coaches Draws to a Close

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 11 March 2018 4 Comments

Prior to the advent of the railways, long distance travel was arduous at best and tediously long to boot. Imagine being jolted for days on end on an ox-wagon. Every single depression, or stone protruding from the ground along the way, would be felt. Unlike Europe, the Romans had never constructed roads in South Africa. In the Cape Colony, bush tracks ultimately became the “roads” through usage and not by design.

After the age of the post cart came the coaches, an imported concept from the American Wild West.

Main picture: Geo. Alcock & Sons Coach Builders, Blacksmiths & Farriers, Korsten, Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Introduction of Air Flight

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 9 March 2018 1 Comment

It can safely be presumed that the residents of Port Elizabeth were equally as fascinated at the concept of air flight as the rest of South Africa. As a testament to that allure was the great fanfare that Allister Miller’s flight from Cape Town in 1917 engendered.

This is the story of how fascination transmogrified into plans and then planes. This was an age of dreamers and schemers.

Main picture: Experimental air mail service between Cape Town and Durban

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Pearson Conservatory

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 8 March 2018 0 Comment

One of Port Elizabeth’s little-known gems is this feature in St George’s Park. Think of Kew Gardens Conservatory – but on a far smaller scale – and you will have an idea of what to expect from the Pearson Conservatory.

Main picture: Interior of the Pearson Conservatory

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