Addo accommodation January discount

Take advantage of your discount and add a +CrissCrossAddo safari to your holiday. From Addo Park open vehicle safari's to river safari's to quad biking to fishing... welcome to the Adventure Province of South Africa!

Addo Accommodation December Discount!

Theo Aronson's "A Valley Couple"

(Extract from The Trumpeting Elephant newsleter May/June 1999. Editor: Margaret Walton)

Memories of Early Valley Life

Mr. Theo Aronson, world renowned author, who was born in Kirkwood and who now lives in England, has taken a keen interest in “The Trumpeting Elephant” to which he subscribes. To our great delight he has written the following article for us – we only hope that there will be more articles on his childhood in Kirkwood.

A VALLEY COUPLE

Theo Aronson

My mother came to the Sundays River Valley in 1910. Her name was Hannah Wilson and she was a teacher. As the township of Kirkwood was still being laid out, she lived and taught in nearby Bayville, on the banks of the river. I have a photograph of her at the time, in ankle-length skirt, white blouse and with her hair in a loose Edwardian knot on the nape of her neck, taken against a surprisingly empty, almost desolate background. My mother always looked very young for her age and many years later when I used to go out walking with her, her ex-pupils, who to me looked astonishingly old, would totter up to greet her as ‘Miss Wilson’. My mother was very proud of having started the first library in Kirkwood.

My mother seldom spoked about her childhood but after she died I did some research into her background. Her father, who had been born in Aberdeen in Scotland, was a sailor who jumped ship in Cape Town and spent a roving, restless sort of life. At the age of 60 he settled, strangely enough, in Aberdeen in the Cape Province, where he married a girl of 17. The couple had eight children, of whom my mother was the youngest. As I was not born until my mother was 45, I – who am not that old – had a grandfather who was born almost 180 years ago, in 1820.

Sometime during the First World War, my mother went to Cape Town to marry a man who left her, quite literally, standing at the altar in full bridal dress. She returned to Bayville and married my father; on the rebound, I suspect. She was then 32, he 30.

My father, Philip Aronson, was born in Riga, Latvia which was then part of the Tsarist Russian Empire. He came to the Valley in 1914, when he was 24. He had an older brother there, who died young. My father first had a shop in Tregaron, which I think is still there. Why it was called Tregaron, I don’t know. Many years later, when I was on tour of the United States to promote one of my books, I was in Los Angeles to appear on the famous Merv Griffin Television Show. As I left the studio I suddenly passed a small restaurant called for some reason, “Tregaron”. It made me feel that, in many respects, I had journeyed a long way.

My parents were married in 1919. In that same year they built the house in Harrod Street, Kirkwood, in which they lived for the rest of their lives and in which they celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1969. They died – first my mother and then my father – within three months of each other, in 1970.

One final anecdote. When I was in my twenties and working in London, I once put a pack on back and, all alone, hitch-hiked from Ostend in Belgium to Kirkwood. The journey – it was really in the nature of a Napoleonic pilgrimage and resulted in my first published book, ‘The Golden Bees: The Story of the Bonapartes’ – took six months. I arrived home in time for Christmas. Although my mother travelled quite extensively, my father never left Kirkwood except to go to Port Elizabeth. There he sat, for year after year, decade after decade, going only to Port Elizabeth on either the Uitenhage or the Addo road. Well, when I arrived home that Christmas, having completed a 6000 mile overland journey, my father asked me which way I had come. I started to explain that I had travelled all across Europe, through the Middle East, down Africa, but he cut me short.

‘No, no,’ he said. ‘Did you come through Uitenhage or through Addo?’

Chrislin Staff Outing

Chrislin African Lodge staff goes to PE for an outing!

Chrislin African Lodge certainly could not function without the dedication and hard work of all of our staff members. 

In September we embarked on a memorable fun filled outing as a reward for continuous efforts and a celebration of friendships. And what an amazing day it was!

An hour after leaving Addo, we descended upon the Baywest Shopping Mall in Port Elizabeth. It didn't take us long to find an unbelievable selection of sumptuous cakes at Bayleaf Bistro which, with some coffee, piqued everyone's 'mall exploration' mode. Maria and co. went on a quest to have her ears pierced for the first time in her (about) 55 years. Martha bought some bed linen while Zuzu sat put in more or less one spot for fear of getting lost!

Bayleaf Bistro for cakes and coffee

We then headed off to the beachfront and had a marvellous meal at Angelo's. There was much debate as to what calamari is and Zuzu kept us all entertained in her attempts to eat with a knife and fork for the first time. (Next year we may threaten chopsticks!)

Ladies (and gent) lunching at Angelo's on the PE beachfront

Zuzu giggles

Margaret and Maria

After the nourishment for the body and soul, many a photo and selfie on the beach had to happen

Madi and Jean

With the photo shoot over, we hit tenpin bowling at the Boardwalk. We split into two teams and competition was tight. Everyone pulled out their A game. The suspense was enthralling!

Tenpin bowling hilarity!

Bowling hustler Jean

What a fabulous day... Thank you, ladies!

Sharon, Martha, Zuzu, Maria, Mentha and Juliette

Early Valley Entertainment by Vivienne Gruskin

Early Valley Entertainment

The Trumpeting Elephant

Newsletter of the Sundays River Valley Tourism Forum

Vol. 4 No. 3

August 2001

It is very fitting that Vivienne Gruskin should have written the evocative and fascinating article on early Valley entertainment. Not only was Vivienne the secretary of the Play-reading Society but also chose the plays, cast the players and did the stage décor for more years than she cares to admit.

Memories of Early Valley Entertainment

Recalled by VIVIENNE GRUSKIN, assisted by PETER BURTON

When the pioneer settlers began arriving from the United Kingdom in the early 1920’s, the Valley must have presented a desolate scene. Having left behind the greener shores of the British Isles, bushes, dust storms, relentless heat and an almost permanent scarcity of water. They must have longed for some form of entertainment to brighten their lives. Cut off from Port Elizabeth by bad roads, insufficient transport, and an understandable lack of funds, it is easy to see how they were thrown back to their own resources for entertainment.

In his account of the early days, Johnny Briggs recalled how his father, Kit, and Uncle Arthur, used to gravitate to the home of Eric and Kathleen Swann for musical evenings round the piano. Eric Swann was a prime mover in Valley entertainment in those days, also John and Nan Champion, and the Arthur Filmer’s, whose daughter later married the actor-playwright, Emlyn Williams. One can imagine the settlers inspanning their carts and horses, with a hanging lantern to light the way, or cranking their Model-T Fords, to travel the bad roads to these gatherings. Love of theatre is traditional to the English way of life, so it was natural that evenings where no doubt the ever-popular Gilbert and Sullivan operettas predominated, should branch out into theatrical discussions, concerts, and eventually into staging plays.

The first play, produced in 1925, was “TILLY OF BLOOMSBURY” by Ian Hay. An adventurous choice since it was presented at the Irrigation Board Hall, which possessed no stage or curtain. A wide variety of 15 characters ranged from clergymen to cockney bailiffs, with an Indian, an old lady and a 15 year old girl thrown in for good measure. The mind boggles as to how they achieved it especially with two changes of set from country house to Bloomsbury. Produced by Eric Swann, the cast included well-known names from the past like Arthur Clutton, Alice Elliott and Eric Swann.

This play was followed by others in the 1920’s, namely “Charley’s Aunt”, in which John Vincent took the title role. Also in the 1920’s, this adventurous group staged “Mr. Pym Passes By” at the Opera House as a festival benefit for the retiring city organist, Roger Ascombe.

A play “On Approval” by Frederick Lonsdale was put on at the Irrigation Board Hall with a cast of four – Arthur Clutton, John Vincent, Jane Bengough and Andora Toms. Arthur Clutton used to tell the story of how they took the play “on tour” to Uitenhage in the pouring rain over shocking roads, just managing to get there in Major Reddie’s farm truck, only to find they were playing to an audience of about 10, of whom three were Addo Supporters! Also in the early 1930’s, Noel Crawford’s “Private Lives” was produced at the Irrigation Board Hall and then in Port Elizabeth with the same cast of inspired actors – John Vincent, Andora Toms, Jane Bengough and Arthur Briggs.

By 1931 a Play reading Circle had been firmly established, due largely to the efforts of Nan Champion, Dr. Max Klaas and Jumbo Erskine, with about 30 members gathering at houses in the district. In the beginning, plays were not acted, but read sitting in a circle. Voices from those early days 1931-39 were John and Nan Champion, John Vincent, Arthur Briggs, Arthur and Joy Clutton, Mrs. Phyllis Rogers and her daughter, Andora, Eric and Kathleen Swann, Jane Bengough, Alice Wilkie, Bill and Peggy McIlleron, Nancy Boustead, Jumbo Erskine.

After the Valentine Hall was built by the Sundays River Women’s Institute in the late 1920’s, it was also used for plays and concerts – Theatrical personality, the late Taubie Kuschlik, used to relate how she played Queen Elizabeth at the Valentine Hall, with the dressing rooms in a tent pitched alongside. In later years, of course, the hall was gradually improved and adequate dressing rooms and toilet facilities provided.

The Play reading Society flourished until the war years, 1939-45, when most of the men folk left and the women were too busy coping with farming in those difficult years.

At the close of the war, the society was revived in 1945 with Joan Dowling as secretary. Among the returned soldiers was John Vincent who had, while a prisoner of war, been involved to a great extent in staging plays in the POW camp, making props and costumes out of virtually nothing. He brought his considerable theatrical experience to bear on the newly formed group. The first post-war play reading, “Gaslight”, was read behind a white curtain at the Vincent’s home, with a sort of black and white silhouette effect. Apart from the established readers, newly acquired readers in the years 1945 to the 1950’s, were Mollie Sullivan, Arthur and Joy Knight, Philip and Lucille Kirby, Vivienne Murphy, Denys and Oonagh Parkin. The year 1950 with “Blythe Spirit” and all the technical difficulties it presented – pictures dancing on the walls and so on – marked the year in which the society tackled just about everything. After that, there was no difficulty our technical men, John Vincent and Arthur Knight, could not overcome. There was no backdrop our chairman, John Vincent, could not paint, no prop he could not manufacture.

Play readings in those years were performed in private houses, which explains the advice on notice cards, “Please bring your own cup and cushion”! Hostesses might well remember moving out furniture and bringing in lug boxes to seat audiences. In those days citrus was not transported in bulk trailers or pallets, but in those useful and very accommodating lug boxes. While reading in private homes were very enjoyable and intimate, it soon became evident that there were only a limited number of houses with the necessary large interleading rooms, and audiences were beginning to complain of discomfort. In 1950 the Women’s Institute took the play reading society firmly under its wing and granted the use of the Valentine Hall at minimal cost. Society subscriptions in those days were five shillings (50 cents) a year, and ‘a couple of bob’ for tea served at interval. It was also the year Vivienne Gruskin became general secretary where she has remained ever since.

The first play read at the Valentine Hall was “The Dover Road” by A.A. Milne. With the help of Arthur Knight the stage was reconstructed with interchangeable stage flats, which he designed, and built, making it, as a visiting dramatic society once described it, “one of the finest small stages in the Eastern Cape”. Arthur always told the story of how he designed the central light fitting using his old Morris car’s hub cap!

Play readings became an integral part of Valley entertainment. Operating in the cooler months, plays were put on once a month, the most popular times being school leave-outs and vacations. There was always the noisy front row of small children who produced unexpected laughs when a child would recognise a reader with a loud shout, “There’s my Daddy!” or a small boy yell during a tense thriller, “Mind! He’s behind you!” On another occasion when we had produced a wonderful man-made tropical bird in a cage, as essential stage prop, a small voice piped, “Huh! That’s not a real bird!” (A youthful Peter Slement, of course!).

Apart from the noisy front row, the more sedate centre rows, there were always the back rows where teenagers, more interested in one another that the play, launched their assorted holiday romances. Nevertheless, it was gratifying just how many of the front row and the back row graduated into becoming fully-fledged readers. There is no doubt, apart from filling a need for entertainment, the play readings fostered a love of live theatre and were extremely popular monthly gatherings. The plays were obtained from the ever helpful and efficient Drama Library in Bloemfontein. The rehearsals were great fun, trying to make the necessary gestures or passionate embrace with a book and a drink in one hand and sometimes a revolver in the other. The crew behind the scenes had to man the  “Thunder Machine”, a sheet of corrugated iron, or roll an ancient “Bushman Stone” along the floor for deep rumbles, ring a telephone bell on cue or make the appropriate off-stage noises.

During the years, 1950’s to 1970’s, many dramatic societies presented plays at the Hall for local charities, particularly Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth. Bookings were done at Gruskin’s store – the ever-present order book with pencil attached, which went on the delivery rounds, often saw more seats being booked, than grocery orders placed! The cast members were always treated to a sumptuous meal beforehand – traditional Valley hospitality being a tremendous draw. In similar fashion the play reading presented plays to other groups – I recall evenings at what was then Sandflats, and also at the Port Elizabeth Women’s Club.

1951 Was also the vintage year in which the Addo Play reading produced a play, “Murder Out of Tune”. Apart from two performances at the Valentine Hall, we toured Sandflats, Redhouse, Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth. In the play, a thriller, two shots had to be fired. Our noises-off “gun” was unreliable and sometimes only one shot went off. A runner was always dispatched to the dressing room to warn the actress off-stage, “one shot went off” or “we got two shots”. When she came on-stage, Mollie Sullivan would then know she had to say, “I heard one shot” (or “two” as the case may be!). In this successful play, which produced so much hilarity for us backstage, the cast consisted of Philip and Lucille Kirby, Valaine Murphy, Anthony Swann, Mollie Sullivan, Denys Parkin, Alice Elliott, John Vincent and Vivienne Gruskin – the latter also produced the play.

1952 Onwards were good years for the play reading – a nucleus of enthusiastic and experienced readers, as well as new faces and voices – Rosemary Elliott, Stella Austen, Aileen Grier, Eve Pike, Florence Stein, Michael Richardson-Berl, Geraldine Walton, Margaret Walton, Philipp and Tienie Maske, Joan Stretch, Norman and Charmian Slement, Ian Moore, Oonagh and Denys Parkin. We were able to put on plays with large casts like Dear Octopus, Worm’s Eye View, and The Happiest Days of Your Life, and not turn a hair.

The future of the play reading, like that of all amateur groups throughout the country, became threatened with the advent of television from 1975 onwards. People no longer needed to leave the warmth and comfort of their homes to sit in a hall on a cold winter’s night. For the first time in the Valley’s entertainment history, the theatre was there, on tap, or rather, at a touch of the on-switch. Friday night, instead of play reading night, became “Bonanza” night! The history of organised entertainment came to a voluntary end. No one declared it over – it just folded for lack of support. We rung down the final Curtain and the play readings carried on by presenting the annual play at the Institute’s December Founders’ Day meeting – one-act plays with all-women casts always the most difficult genre to obtain.

So many faces gone – and yet remembered. The fun we had – the side-splitting things that went wrong backstage, the welding together of the cast, the spirit of comradeship, almost like soldiers going into battle, the feeling of achievement when a difficult play went off well – all these were the rich rewards of many years of entertainment. Things have come a long way since those early settlers had singsongs round the piano. Who knows – the days of live theatrical presentations might come again as the pendulum swings. It only needs a few theatrical enthusiasts with sufficient energy and dedication.

Editor

Margaret Walton

Sub-Editor: Helga Fraser

Typesetting and layout by Janine Briggs & Margie Tarr

Addo Rose Tea 2015

The stalwart women of the Sundays River Valley Women's Institute are at it again, the Addo Rose Tea!

After last year's success and fun, we're sure to be in for another treat. There seems to be nothing these fabulous women cannot do, and they do it with style, stamina and smiles. 

Come and join us at the Valentine Hall, Addo, on 17th Otober 2015 at 2pm.

Limited seats so do book in advance.

Talbot Elliott's Memories of Addo, Eastern Cape

This article was written for the May/June 1999 Trumpeting Elephant (local newsletter in Sundays River Valley). Talbot and Rosemary Elliott are presently (August 2015) in Valleihof Retirement Home, Kirkwood, Eastern Cape.

Talbot Elliott, another settler son of the Valley who has recently retired to Sunland, farmed at Hermiston, Addo, for many years, and took part in many Valley activities and sports with great enthusiasm. Talbot still plays bowls, does woodwork as a hobby, is a stalwart of St. Michaels, Summerville and is still enthusiastic about his life in this area. His memories of the early days at Addo make interesting and amusing reading.

Talbot Elliott’s Memories

Jack Elliott and Bill Dyke were South Africans and met during the First World War. Jack had a bad injury to his left elbow that left him partially disabled. He and Bill Dyke decided they would go into partnership and but a property in the recently advertised Sundays River Valley. Being born in South Africa they had a better idea of the soils and climate of the region and from the map in London, they selected a prime section of Commando Kraal. They found they had acquired land with 30 feet (about 8 metres) of alluvial soil. The price per morgen was five pounds!

            Bill Dyke farmed Bydand Farm                         Dorothy Dyke, Bill's Wife.

Bill playing the bagpipes on Bydand Farm, the name on the crest of his regiment, the Gordon Highlanders.

Bill & Dorothy Dyke, October 1920 

Ruth, Bill & Dorothy Dyke's daughter, wedding to Kenneth McDowell Woolley. 

While Jack was convalescing he met Alice Banks, who was then working as a land girl. He returned to South Africa and he and Bill began developing the land they had bought. Subsequently he sent Alice a photo of a pondocky and asked if she could live in it. She said yes, and so she came out to marry Jack.

They had 2 children, Mary and Talbot. When Talbot was 12 his father died. He was still attending St. Vincent’s school for the Deaf in Johannesburg. His mother employed Mr. von de Marwitz as a foreman for seven pounds a month wages! Talbot was about 17 when he came to take over the running of the farm in 1940.

By this time the Elliott’s and Dyke’s had divided the land they had started in partnership and acquired more property. Night water leading was extremely tiring. Four days and nights without let up, using paraffin lamps or later carbide lamps at nighttime. The Irrigation Board would try to ensure water leading was done during the full moon. The Farmer would get up twice in the night to take sandwiches and coffee to the men working through the night.

Things were incredibly difficult in those early days. There was still no dam, and crops were grown on the run-off from floodwaters! So settlers were always looking for ways to make a little extra money. In 1920, Barclay’s Bank asked for tenders to build the bank manager’s house. Bill Dyke and Jack Elliott won it! Alice Elliott, remembering those days said, “They didn’t know much about building, so they would work during the day and in the evening they would pour over their books on do-it-yourself building to see how the floor joists were set or the roof beams” (the house has been extensively altered since, but the original part still seems to be holding up O.K.)

Other ways to earn money were bee keeping and chickens. On one ghastly occasion the bees stung the Elliott’s chickens, killing them all. Sometimes success could be a problem too. One year the Dyke’s had a bumper crop of groundnuts (peanuts) and since there was nothing else to eat, they ate them until the sight of a peanut made them feel ill!

Oranges were picked into lug boxes (which had a multitude of other uses, like bed-side tables and shelving). Farmers paid 1d per lug for hiring them. 25 full lugs could be loaded on a wagon pulled by mules or horses. One day Talbot was loading 50 empty lugs onto the wagon, when the wind blew some of  the lugs onto the mules, which took off without Talbot at a flat gallop and arrived home unhurt and driverless!

Then just when things seemed to be going all right, in February came the plague of locusts. Everyone was mobilised and farmers, their staff and children were lined up with tins and pans banging them furiously to encourage the locusts to take off and hopefully move onto someone else’s farm. They spent the whole day walking backwards and forwards across the farm.

In the early days Jack and Alice drove to Port Elizabeth by horse and trap past the Old Addo Drift House. There were 12 gates on the road, and Alice counted at one time 24 tortoises on the road to Port Elizabeth. A trip to town was special; they would spend the night and luxuriate in a hot bath.

There were no fresh vegetables except what people grew. The Women’s Institute initiated the Women’s Market every Friday when people would take their surplus vegetables and buy someone else’s. Before long some people were making a small regular income from the weekly market. At first a bell would indicate that buying could commence, but the unseemly grabbing by the lady sellers, was felt to be undignified, especially when a bunch of carrots disintegrated with 2 irate ladies tugging it from different directions. Thereafter benches were put in front of the table and committee members would stand behind, ready to serve when the bell rang. If you were friends with the committee member near you, you could bespeak some of the things you wanted and get first chance. Otherwise you would be drowned out by the cacophony of shouts from the assembled ladies. Opinions differed if this was more or less dignified than straight grabbing.

The Pickels' now own Hermiston Farm and established Chrislin African Lodge B&B. Citrus is still on the farm and, like their predecessors, are entrepreneurial on the land!

  

Crisscross Adventures - quad biking starts on Hermiston Farm. So do the Addo Park safari's, river safari and more!