In the following article Patricia Storrar provides a brief history of the Harker graves in Plettenberg Bay. The piece was published in the 1977 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.
In the second issue of Restorica an appeal was made for assistance in the task of restoring the oldest graves at Plettenberg Bay, those of six members of the Harker family which lie a few metres to the east of Beacon Way, the main road running out of the town towards Port Elizabeth. The effort to restore these graves to some semblance of order and dignity after more than a century of neglect was made by a small committee of four residents of the Bay and the cost was met by private subscription. A low stone wall now encloses the area, the gravestones (all of slate) now rest securely on concrete slabs and the paths between the stones are neatly covered with stone chips to discourage further encroachment of the bush, grass and creepers which previously obscured the site.
The six members of the Harker family buried here all lived in the first half of the 19th century and all of them died long before St. Peter's Church (Anglican) was built in 1879-80 in the Village of Formosa. All but two in fact, died before the little yellowwood Church of St. Andrew, Redbourn (declared an Historic...
