powder magazine

Last week a group of us met in the nearby hamlet of Bathurst in the Eastern Cape to retrace the steps of a tour we last did in about 2014. This included visiting visited the 191 year-old Methodist Church:

This was followed by the St. John’s Anglican Church (the oldest unaltered church in the country), both of which have played a role in providing protection for the inhabitants of Bathurst and the surrounding farms against the marauding Xhosas during the 1800s:

These churches have both got very interesting cemeteries containing the graves of a number of people who played a significant part in the economic and social development of this part of the world.

It was very interesting to visit the Powder Magazine further up the hill from the churches. The original stone building is still intact even though the surrounding mud walls have long since eroded. I have visited it many times, yet this was the first time I had been able to see inside this historic building – very tiny indeed – to note how thick the stone walls are and to inspect the curved ceiling:

As lunch time approached, some members of the party decided to picnic at the Toposcope – also an interesting place to visit. Situated on a hill with a marvellous view of the surrounding area, it contains plaques indicating the ships that brought the 1820 Settlers to the Eastern Cape, the names of the significant parties and the direction in which the various families were apportioned land:

Three of us decided to lunch at the historic country hotel known as The Pig and Whistle which is reputed to be the oldest licensed pub in the country. While I may return to the other sites I have mentioned in other posts, this is where I wish to tell you about our unusual experience. You may have experienced something similar, so do tell if you have.

We secured a table on the veranda, where we could enjoy the rather brisk breeze as well as the view. A limited menu was offered and we quickly ordered our food – typical pub fare, so nothing fancy. This was at one o’ clock. We explained that we needed to meet the rest of the party at two o’ clock. We drank our soft drinks and watched the passersby pass by … saw some patrons receiving their plates of food … checked on the progress of our order. Each time we were assured it was ‘nearly ready’ … by this time other members of our party had driven down the hill for coffee. Our plates of food eventually arrived at ten minutes to two. I explained it would be impossible for us to down our food in five minutes and asked for it to be placed in take-away containers. They were happy to oblige except, said the manageress, “we don’t have plastic knives and forks”. I asked if we could take the metal tableware already placed on our table – she agreed.

Once our visit to the Toposcope was over, we enjoyed our lunch as a picnic, using the back of our bakkie as a make-shift table. We took the cutlery back to the hotel after we had eaten: they expressed no surprise at all – I imagine they simply assumed we would do so.

Note that we have had wonderful meals and good service from this establishment before.

I hope none of my readers have ever been stonewalled by someone who has persistently refused to communicate with you or even to express an emotion of any sort in your presence. I am told that this is called ‘unfriending’ these days. How awful!

Moving towards the literal interpretation of stone walls, I have a few local historical stone walls to show you. Here is a rough stone wall made of seemingly random rubble that was built in Port Alfred. As the stones are not of a uniform size or shape, they have been carefully arranged in order to distribute pressure over the maximum area whilst avoiding long vertical joints. The gaps appear to have been filled with what looks like a mixture of gravel and cement. This wall is all that remains of the original fort in Port Alfred and is now incorporated as the boundary wall of a private home in Hards Street.

This dry stone wall at the Clay Pits in the Coombs area appears to have been begun with largely dressed stone, while the top layer consists of a loose collection of stones that may have been available in the immediate area. It is the only wall remaining of the original fortification at that site.

Much more sturdily built is the stone wall of the powder magazine in Bathurst. Made from local stone sorted into size with some roughly hewn ones in between. It was built in 1821.

This stone wall is part of the fortified farm at Barville Park, complete with loop holes. It consists of an interesting collection of local stones filled with cement. The grey vertical lines indicate where cracks have been filled with modern cement. In his poem, Mending Wall, Robert Frost explains that:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

Several farms in the Eastern Cape, as well as in the Karoo National Park (where this photograph was taken) use a collection of rounded boulders loosely piled together as a buffer against potential soil erosion.

The Governor’s Kop signal tower was built in 1843 as part of a series of signal towers that relayed messages via semaphore from Fort Selwyn in Grahamstown via Governor’s Kop to Fraser’s Camp and so on to Fort Peddie and Fort Beaufort. It illustrates a far more sophisticated method of building stone walls. These stones have been built to course, shown by their straight beds and sides which have been levelled up to form courses of varying depth.