Western Cape

I was recently given four photographs of early 20th century Cape Town. They are all in sepia brown shades. The dimensions are 8.5 x 11.30 inches. The edges of the photos are in poor condition but the main scenes are clearly visible. I would love to date these photographs.

They are clearly from the photographic studio of TP Ravenscroft and the one of Sea Point has a stamp on the reverse TD Ravenscroft. 

Sea Point (TD Ravenscroft)

Some internet research shows that the Ravenscroft family is interested in their genealogy and run a website www.ravenscroft.co.net. A great deal of information about TD Ravenscroft and the Ravenscroft family is accessible on this site. Crofts the popular Parkview coffee shop on Tyrone Avenue, Johannesburg belongs to Grant Ravenscroft. 

Thomas Daniel Ravenscroft was clearly an extraordinary man. He was an early photographer in the Cape. His dates were 1851 or 2 to 1948 which made him the "world's oldest working professional photographer" during his long life. In the latter part of his life  (from the 1920s or 1930s, he lived in Hermanus or as it was called then Hermanuspietersfontein and was well known as a photographer of the town and he also did a photographic study of Stanford. Many of Ravenscroft's photographs are to be found in the De Wets Huis Photo Museum in Hermanus. 

Based on internet...

Ganzekraal is a farm dating back to the early 1700s. It was a key farm in the Groene Kloof (as the area north of Rietvlei and all the way to Geelbek on the Langebaan Lagoon was referred to in the time of the VOC) and is significant as part of the network of farms and buiteposte that stretched the VOC influence all the way from the Castle to Saldanha Bay.

Ganzekraal was one of the earliest freehold farms at the Cape, the title thereto having been given to Jacob van Reenen by a grateful government in recognition of his long and arduous trek to find the wreck of the Grosvenor (wrecked in 1782 on the North Transkei Wild Coast). The slave bell tower still stands today and this housed the bell from the Grosvenor, that Jacob had brought back from his expedition to find the wreck in 1790.

Old photo of Granzekraal

Jacobs Bay which lies West of Ganzekraal was named after Jacob Van Reenen and was used by him to load his grain and produce onto ships that would lie at anchor in the sheltered bay. Today it is the holiday resort of Ganzekraal offering chalets, camping and a conference center.

Many West Coast family names are associated with Ganzekraal, amongst them the Melcks, Duckitts, Cloetes, Van Der...

In April this year the charming Victorian village of Matjiesfontein will host a weekend of talks and events commemorating the history of the South African / Anglo Boer War (click here for details). One of the speakers is Dr Dean Allen who has written the definitive history of Matjiesfontein and its founder James Logan (many readers will be familiar with his book Empire, War and Cricket in South Africa). In the article below, Allen explores key aspects of Logan's remarkable life and reveals the political and sporting history he helped to shape.

Dean Allen

‘The Ideal Colonist’

James Douglas Logan was born in Scotland on 26 November 1857 at Reston, a small working-class Berwickshire town close to the English border. By the age of fourteen, Logan had joined his father as a clerk at the town’s railway station. However, the young Scot’s ambitions soon outgrew the confines of the rigid class structure of Victorian Britain. The British Empire was expanding and the colonies were offering the promise of a new beginning. In South Africa, as one analyst suggested, ‘money was the criterion … We didn’t have any class other than a money class. There was no aristocracy.’ Logan, like thousands of others, decided that opportunity and, more importantly, status, were easier obtained in British enclaves overseas.

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Few visitors driving through Hout Bay on the way to Chapman’s Peak Drive will have failed to notice in the sea below the road a curious concrete and steel jetty - usually the resting place of a number of cormorants drying themselves in the sun! This marks the most immediately visible remnant of one of the Cape’s most remarkable early mining ventures, the Hout Bay manganese mine.

The curious jetty (The Heritage Portal)

Although the dense forests surrounding Hout Bay – hence its name - had been noted by Jan Van Riebeeck and the settlement there had grown slowly but steadily it is astonishing that a further two centuries were to elapse until, in 1873, we find the first written account of the existence in the mountains above Hout Bay of the valuable metal manganese:

“On the 19th November [1873] I went to inspect another manganese mine in the vicinity of Hout Bay. Leaving our horses beyond the block-house in charge of a herd, we ascended the Noordhoek mountain by a very precipitous route, and after an hour’s stiff climb reached a rough track formed by a winter torrent, along which we stumbled over several specimens of the ore; these had been washed down no great distance. Guided by Capt. E., I came to the...

Fifty five years ago Hermanus experienced its longest and most high profile contact ever with the Royal Navy. The famous aircraft carrier HMS Victorious officially visited the town for two incident-packed days that galvanised the whole population.

HMS Victorious 1961

HMS Victorious was the most famous of all Royal Navy aircraft carriers in 1961 when she anchored in Walker Bay and most of her 2000 strong crew came ashore on two successive weekends for R&R. She was commissioned in 1939 and served in several key battles during World War II. Most notably, she provided air cover to other Royal Navy ships in the sinking of the German battleship, the Bismarck. She was thrown into this battle although not fully equipped and with only a quarter of her full complement of aircraft. 

In 1941 and 1942 the Victorious accompanied many Atlantic convoys, especially a convoy to deliver much needed supplies to the island of Malta. She was also part of a convoy that landed 107 000 Allied soldiers in North Africa. Convoys continued in 1943, and in 1944 Victorious played a leading role in sinking the German battleship Tirpitz.

1945 found the aircraft carrier in the Pacific, attacking installations on Japanese held islands and on the Japanese mainland, before the War ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb. Sadly, five of the pilots operating from the...

Strubenheim is a majestic historic mansion in Rosebank, Cape Town. It belonged to Harry Struben who, along with his brother Fred, played a crucial part in the story of the discovery of the largest goldfield on earth. Although they cannot claim to have discovered the Witwatersrand's main reef, it was their pioneering efforts on the Confidence Reef nearby that drew others to Langlaagte where the big discovery was made (click here for further details). Earlier this year mining historian Rod Kruger and Struben descendent Adam Struben visited Strubenheim. They managed to explore all the nooks and crannies of this historic gem including the rarely accessed main tower!  We are very grateful that they decided to send us a few of their magnificent photographs. Text by Rod Kruger.

Rod Kruger and Adam Struben on top of the Strubenheim Tower

Strubenheim was the masterpiece built by Harry Struben when he made the big time! In size and luxury it compares with Downton Abby of BBC series fame, with huge rooms, magnificent fireplaces, imposing staircases and generous servants quarters. 

Strubenheim (Rod Kruger)

I enjoyed looking at photos of the original furniture showing the opulent tastes of the time...

A city steeped in military history gives locals and visitors a glimpse into the past. The abundance of museums and memorials ensure that the city’s military past is remembered.

'Military history is an integral part of the story of Cape Town. Being the oldest city in South Africa, Cape Town has a rich history and the military plays a large part in that story. We cannot erase this history but instead need to preserve it as part of our heritage and an inclusive city. It is interesting to see where and how it all started,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development, Councillor Eddie Andrews.

The launch of the Military Heritage Route is a part of the City of Cape Town’s culture and heritage strategy. The route, which includes the Castle of Good Hope, the South African Naval Museum in Simon’s Town, and the Chavonnes Battery Museum, showcases the rich military heritage that Cape Town has to offer Capetonians and visitors.

The map from the launches that happened during September 2016

The Castle of Good Hope is the oldest surviving building in South Africa’s colonial era and has been the centre of civilian, political and military life at the Cape since 1666. It was initially erected as a fort and about 13 years later (1679) was turned into the Castle of...

In 1996 Michael Scurr penned the following article on the restoration of the Old Cape Archives (today the Centre for the Book). It was published in Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation. Thank you to the University of Pretoria and the Heritage Association of South Africa for giving us permission to publish.

The Old Cape Archives, a National Monument and most prominent architectural landmark in Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town, has now been fully refurbished and restored as the culmination of a two-phase programme commissioned by the Department of Public Works.

The restoration is part of a long-term programme initiated by the PWD during which attention has been deliberately focussed on preserving and revitalising culturally significant buildings throughout South Africa. The completed restoration of the contemporary Union Buildings and the restoration of the Palace of Justice on Church Square, Pretoria, are examples, particularly with regard to similar fine stonework of period detailing. As in the case of the Old Archives, these buildings have also benefited from the guidance of senior PWD architects Cliff Green and Peet Wolmarans.

Architects for the restoration were Rennie and Goddard of Cape Town, who have been involved in such award winning restorations as the East London City Hall, the historic Vergelegen homestead near Somerset West and the National Monuments Council offices in Cape Town. 

Following the moving of the Archives to the former Roeland Street gaol site in recent years, the State-owned "Old Cape Archives" has been occupied by the South...

Hout Bay is the third oldest surviving formal settlement in South Africa, only Cape Town and Simon’s Town are its seniors. Its early existence was largely due to its abundance of timber, however, that valuable resource disappeared within 30 years of van Riebeeck’s arrival and agricultural activity was quickly established as a sustainable living for those who settled there. Around the turn of the twentieth century Cape Town’s and Wynberg’s sustainable water resources were exhausted resulting in the eventual construction of 5 dams which took most of the perennial water from the Hout Bay River and in 1966 the Apostle tunnel took the balance of the rest of the water rising from above that point. The result was the slow but sure death of agriculture and finally Kronendal farm ceased commercial operation as the oldest working farm in the country in 1995.

Hout Bay highlighted – for all the wrong reasons

A significant announcement was made on Heritage Day by a panel of heritage experts that one of Hout Bay’s heritage sites was listed as one of the “Ten most endangered heritage sites in SA”, Hout Bay’s EAST FORT (click here to view).

 A sentry box still remains but the walls of the guard room and officers' quarters have collapsed in recent years (Dave Cowley)

Somehow the ten listed sites, all of which are acknowledged for their exceptional historic importance...

Forest Hall is an historic estate located in The Crags near Plettenberg Bay. It hosts a spectrum of high end functions including grand weddings and corporate events (click here for some recent pics). In the article below, first published in Restorica in 1977, Patricia Storrar delves into the history of this unique property. Thank you to the Heritage Association of South Africa and the University of Pretoria for giving us permission to publish.

It is impossible to write the story of Forest Hall, a spacious old house standing in the heart of forested land some 23 kilometres east of Plettenberg Bay, without sketching briefly the history of the man who built it more than a century ago. Because it was the character of this man and the background from which he came which determined emphatically the size and style of the house and the setting in which it was placed. 

In June 1847 young William Henry Newdigate, third son of Francis Newdigate and his wife, Lady Barbara Maria Legge, daughter of the third Earl of Dartmouth, arrived to put down his roots in the green Piesang Valley, Plettenberg Bay. A scion of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in Britain, he could trace his ancestry back on the paternal side through a long line of noble Newdigates - among whom titles abounded - to the 15th century. The Newdigate ancestral seat was - and still is today - Arbury Hall, Nuneaton, Warwickshire. William and two of his brothers were born at Astley Castle, the seat of...