Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Eponymously Named Brickmaker’s Kloof

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

This steep Kloof which extends from the Baakens River at its foot to what is today Park Drive at the top must have obtained its moniker due to the activities of a Mr John Matthews. In 1822 he opened a brickfield at the top of what was to become Brickmaker’s Kloof to manufacture normal building bricks. 

By as early as 1826, the well-known red roof tiles which are so prominent of the old houses in Port Elizabeth were also being made here. Captain Evatt even sent some samples of “his invention” to Cape Town, the purpose probably being to stimulate demand for this tile. 

Main picture:   View of Brickmaker’s Kloof from South End 

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Enclosed Harbour Scheme in the 1930s

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Even though the celebration in 1933 focused on the opening of the Charl Malan Quay, this project represented more than just the construction of one quay. Instead, it represented the conversion of the port into a proper enclosed harbour.

None of the river mouths on the Algoa Bay littoral are suitable for use as a harbour. As some stage there had even been suggestions to use the Zwartkops River but these were never advanced to the planning stage.

 Finally, the bull was taken by the horns and the jetties and anchorage converted into a proper modern harbour. 

Main picture: An aerial view of the Charl Malan Quay under construction

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Harbour prior to the Charl Malan Quay

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 3 Comments

With the expansion of industry in Port Elizabeth, the need to enlarge the port had by the 1920s become pressing and urgent. Up until then, goods and passengers had  to be loaded onto lighters at sea which then conveyed them to a tiny jetty known as North Jetty. What was proposed was to convert this jetty into a quay able to accommodate large ships alongside it. 

Main picture: Landing through the surf

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: St. Mary’s – The Mother Church

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 2 Comments

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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Port Elizabeth of Yore: “New Church” in Main Street

By Dean McCleland in Opinion Pieces 2 Comments

One of the little known facts about Port Elizabeth of Yore is that there was another church in Main Street apart from St. Mary’s. It was known by the highly imaginative name of The New Church. It stood in Main Street between Donkin Street and Constitutional Hill, which extended down to Main Street in those days. This church was initially an independent church built by the members of Union Chapel. 

Main picture:  New Church is on the right looking towards the market square. One is unable to view the Town Hall at the end of Main Street, as it did not yet exist. 

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Rations, Rules and other Regulations aboard the Settler Ships

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

As would be expected, meals were provided to all Settlers on their passage to the Cape Colony. The items comprising the meals were set out in detail in the Dietary Tables of the Algoa Bay Emigration Ships. 

Not only did these requirements specify the composition of the meals but also the bedding and the sleeping arrangements regarding unmarried women. Included are also the unofficial but quaint methods of food provisioning. Moreover, certain Party leaders would impose their own versions of control.

Main picture: Model of the Weymouth

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Earliest Photographs & Photographers

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 6 Comments

This was another first for Port Elizabeth. By all accounts, the first photographic studio in the Cape Colony was established in Port Elizabeth using the first viable photographic process. This was known as the Daguerreotype process, introduced worldwide in 1839. For the following nearly twenty years, it was the most commonly used photographic process internationally. The first photograph using this process in Port Elizabeth was on the 17th October 1846.

Main picture: The Beach at South End in 1878

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Defences during the Boer War

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

Although Port Elizabeth was never directly affected during the Anglo-Boer War as it was never occupied or fought over, measures had to be taken to prevent the destruction of infrastructure in the unlikely event of a Boer raid. 

The blog only covers those defensive measures. 

Main picture: One of the two forts at the Upper Van Stadens Dam which was constructed during the Anglo-Boer War

 

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Memorials to the Fallen in War

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Port Elizabeth is home to a number of memorials which recognise the sacrifice of the men of Port Elizabeth in past wars. 

This blog will only cover three of them starting with the least known, the Grey High School war memorial. Then I will cover the memorial of the Prince Alfred Guards and then finally the Cenotaph in St George’s Park. 

Main picture: Unveiling of the Prince Alfred Guard’s Memorial

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