Redhouse Institutions

Wrapping up this series on the fantastical history of Redhouse, once known as the “Home of Jolly Bachelors”, we discuss the astonishing number of institutions which have played their part in the history of the Village, some long departed, others still going strong.

I should state that the reason for this series on the history of the Village is to record at least an outline of what transpired in this magic place. As the poet said, “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. Generations come and go, and much knowledge is lost.

For future (and more serious) students of Village history, you need to know that the Redhouse Library is the repository of most of the records of the clubs and societies mentioned below. I am sure that diligent research in the dusty archives would reveal much new information to fill out these brief notes.

Curious readers may have wondered why this series has not concentrated on actual people of the Village, with very few exceptions. That’s because true history is sometimes best told as fiction, to avoid legal costs!

We start with sporting codes first.

Badminton

I have no idea when badminton began or ended or if it was run as a formal club. I do have very vague memories of games being played in the Village Hall. It was certainly going strong in the late 1940s and probably lasted into the 1960s.

The trophies for the modern Boxing Day Triathlon consist of the ancient and battered Badminton Cup minus one handle (First Prize) and the other handle (Second Prize).

Bowls

The Bowling Green was donated to the ZRC by Bill Oddy in 1953, which implies that it must have been in existence before that. In fact, close scrutiny of a photograph taking from the air in 1920 (I imagine the intrepid photographer leaning out of the back seat of a WW I Sopwith Camel biplane, hanging on to his heavy old-style camera for dear life) shows clear existence of what looks like a green in the correct position.

In the 1980s bowls became very popular and the ZRC Bowling Section joined the various local and national associations in 1984. To do this, they had to have 17 members. With time running out to get the application in, the late Gulla Reynolds approached members in the bar to please join up. I put my name down on condition that if I ever grew old enough to join the ”white ants” I would be allowed to play in Club colours, i.e. pink. Hasn’t happened yet!

The bowls section was renamed the Redhouse Bowls Club in 1997 and disbanded 2019, but social bowls remains.

Boxing Day Triathlon

This is a fairly recent tradition, started about 2008. It involves teams supposedly made up of at least two generations of the same family. The event takes place at the RYC and involves a swim across the River and back, whereupon the cyclists race two laps round the Village on the near side of the railway line, followed by runners who complete the event. Some surprisingly good times have been recorded.

Coffee and buns for competitors and spectators complete the morning and Christmas Dinner is well and truly settled.

Golf

The Redhouse Golf Club was founded in 1905. Emil Lippstreu laid out the course, which had greens of Kimberley Blue, a black grit. The course was looked after for most of its existence by George Goba, aided by his wife Maggie and his children, who acted as caddies in addition to looking after the family’s horses and cattle.

George grew up on my Grandfather’s farm, part of which is now the Wedgewood Gold Course. He ran the RGC, made the tea, took the green fees, checked the score cards and provided advice on how to negotiate the course.

Plenty of Village golfers learned to play on the old course and remember it fondly to this day.

In the 1970s the implementation of the Apartheid Group Areas Act meant that George had to move away. In addition, golfers were increasingly attracted to more modern courses in Port Elizabeth.

Salt pans were developed alongside the course and salt seepage put paid to the mushrooms which had been a feature well loved by the “owners” of jealously guarded patches. The Club was dissolved in 1978.

Hockey

There are photographs of the Redhouse Hockey Club dated 1905, so presumably it must have been started around that time.

At one stage, the field was situated on what is now a wetland opposite the Perseverance Industrial area. The field that I played on was situated a couple of hundred metres behind the primary school and was accessed from the first lane to the right when you entered the Village.

The field was notorious for its uneven surface which was caused by legions of moles who lived in that area. Eventually we were driven to planting broken glass in a trench around the field, but I don’t think it did any good.

The first clubhouse I remember was a wooden shack. It was replaced in due course by a fine brick structure, with showers, a braai and a bar.

During the 1970s and 80s the RHC fielded four teams and was unique in that it was multi-racial throughout the Apartheid era.

Many are the stories to be told about the good old RHC. One fine day the first team beat Uitenhage 7 goals to 2, which was a famous victory for us. The game started at 11h00. The last team members were carried out of the ZRC at 21h00 that night. It was a great celebration.

I claim to be the first streaker across the RHC field, when that was the fashion, but my achievement was surpassed by a certain Uitenhage player who happened to be under the shower after a hard, hot game when a Redhouse opponent threw a snake into his cubicle, knowing full well that the opposition player was petrified of serpents. With a startling scream he fled across the field stark naked except for soapsuds.

But, along with the collapse of civilization as we knew it, the RHC had folded by 1990, like so many other sports clubs.

Rowing

Rowing erupted onto the River in the 1870s with the formation of no less than four clubs, the Ino, Southern Cross, St Georges and the only survivor, the Zwartkops Rowing Club, formed in 1873.

The first regatta was held on 23rd May 1874, the ZRC resplendent in red, black and blue which preceded the familiar cerise “pinks” which have been the Club colours since at least 1895. In 1875 a regatta was held in honour of Queen Victoria’s birthday and included races for six-oars and four-oars, canoes and yachts, and ended with a “swimming match”!

Twenty-four years later the minutes of the 1898 AGM record a proposal by Mr Carden to sell off the racing boats as they were hardly ever used.

Rowing was dormant until 1973 when the massive celebrations planned for the ZRC Centenary saw a strong revival of the Club’s participation in provincial and national regattas. This burst of energy lasted at least forty years, with a number of male and female club members earning national colours.

The Village is also host to the Nelson Mandela University and Grey High School rowing clubs and of late, the Redhouse RC. The ZRC has recently signed up a group of Grey fathers who will hopefully write yet another chapter in the Club’s rowing saga.

Swimming

The Redhouse Swimming Club was founded in 1896, although I have a photograph of a large number of gents standing and seated in front of what must have been the first swimming club building, right on the riverbank, in 1895.

There are later pictures of the swimming jetty with a high diving board. The original wooden structure was replaced after WW II with brick changing rooms. Very convenient trysting hideout in the dead of the night for the young bloods.

The RSC won the inaugural River Mile race in 1924. Roy Gregory became the first River Mile Champion. 48 swimmers entered the race. Over the years, RSC won the event fourteen times.

Eventually, the event became commercialised and in 2010 was moved to the Sundays River due to perceived water quality issues.

For a short while in the 1970s if I remember correctly, there was an Enduro Race, swum from the River mouth to Redhouse, a distance of about seven kilometres.

Tennis

Tennis started in about 1918 when the Redhouse Tennis and Croquet Club was formed. All early minutes were lost when the house on the Henley property burnt down.

The Club boasted three gravel courts and a croquet court and a small clubhouse. Croquet had died out by 1930 but tennis was strongly supported. The courts were made “all-weather” and a fourth one built on the site of the croquet court during the 1960s. The aerial picture of the Village taken in 1920 shows cleared squares of land in the correct position.

The tennis fraternity had their own “Tennis Bar” at the ZRC where they gathered after the action on a Saturday afternoon, and very festive it was.

Yachting

The Redhouse Yacht Club has a long and interesting history which needs its own book. A brief precis follows.

The club was founded in 1904. A major celebration took place in 2004, capping a century of keen racing in a wide variety of craft ranging from forty-foot scows to small single-handed boats designed for children. As the area is well-known for strong winds, involuntary swimming is part of the sport.

Racing in the modern era is a lot less competitive than in the olden days, when the rules allowed a degree of mayhem that would instantly earn a red card in a rugby game today.

Many are the tales to be told of the countless races sailed since 1904. In these gentle days, gales are avoided. Not so in the past. The image remains in my mind of a Laser, running back from the Islands before a south-westerly buster, “pitchpoling” – the bow was driven under and she somersaulted. Crazy stuff!

Protest meetings were a regular feature. These are a form of court martial, run according to a strict procedure, where both sides get to tell their version of the incident under protest. I have witnessed many such trials and have always been amazed at how elusive truth can be.

The Clubhouse is situated in the floodplain so is invaded by the River and inundated with mud on a regular basis.  Work parties then have the joyous task of cleaning up.

One member who invariably swims when the floods come is “Mrs. Murphy”, the figurehead of a long-lost sailing ship. She moved from Veeplaas to the RYC in 1931 and has her make-up done on a regular basis.

In the big 1944 flood she was seen moving downstream in an upright and most stately manner (she has a heavy base, a feature shared by a lot of elderly women). In due course she was returned, muddy but unharmed, by railway truck.

In 1930 the wheelhouse of the tug “Ulundi” was set up on the end of the long-lost RYC jetty. The guns and the Ulundi’s bell (now on the Bridge) were housed there. Years later the jetty was removed, and the wheelhouse was carried upstream and set up opposite about where “A” buoy is moored, as an additional starting line. Eventually a flood carried it away. All that remains is the bell.

The RYC carries on sailing, long may it continue to do so.

Now we look at non-sporting activities.

Benevolent Society

In 1936 the ladies of the Village became concerned about the plight of the children who lived in the nearby township of Veeplaas. They collected 10 pence a month from each of the approximately 100 houses in the Village to buy milk and oranges for the kids. The “Benev” held its first committee in 1938 and carries on the good work to this day, although it is running very low on volunteers.

Carols by Candlelight

About mid-December, Christmas Carols are sung by a large group of people who move up the Towpath disturbing the dogs and ensuring that the numerous wicked in that part of the world are reminded that Christmas is coming and that they had better reform.

In the olden days, Carols were sung on Christmas Eve behind the Yacht Club. We had some very talented musicians and singers in the Village. The show was put together by Mrs Thelma Kohler. Good King Wenceslas was sung by Mrs Eily Murray and Mr George Jones, singing alternate verses, one falsetto, the other deep baritone, to the amusement of many naughty boys who, when they weren’t sticking their candles in some innocent’s ear, would do their best to mimic the singers.

One year, it rained. The Carol service was brought inside the Yacht Club building. The musicians were seated facing the River, and the congregation sat on rows of benches facing them.

Being Christmas Eve, many of us had watched Father Christmas come down the River and had thereafter observed the tradition of having one or two or eleventy toots at the ZRC bar. On this occasion, the Village Priest had joined us. He was a young bachelor, and very popular with his gentle congregation at St Nicholas, but was not well acquainted with the sailors who felt more at home on boats than pews.

The evil dogs plied him with liquor. Eventually he was escorted to the Yacht Club, where the Carol service was about to begin. Mrs Kohler thereupon summonsed the priest to say a prayer.

Well, he fell over several pews on the way to the front, then turned and faced the crowd and delivered the most slurred prayer ever heard. The old ladies of the Village were not amused. It wasn’t long before he was posted elsewhere. Fortunately, God relented, and we got him back again.

Cemetery

The graveyard must have been established after 1920 as there is no sign of it in the aerial photograph of that date. The first burial (north-west corner) was that of Mrs Munday, who ran a boarding house way back when at number 54 Towpath, the large house next to the ZRC.

Mrs Munday was succeeded by the indomitable Minnie Hutton, who has the lane next to the house named after her.

The cemetery covers a large enough area to have taken care of the Village for the next several millennia, but unfortunately the township funeral parlours discovered it and in no time at all it was filled up.

There were incidents of Satanists allegedly digging up corpses and headstones being pinched for rework by enterprising stonemasons, but nowadays it’s a deadly hush, excuse the pun.

Church

The Zwartkops Valley Land Company granted a site for the erection of a church on the west side of the Hall in 1939. World War II interrupted fundraising and building only started in 1952, the first service at St Nicholas being held on June 7^th of the following year. The patron saint of children and of sailors, St Nicholas was an appropriate choice for a village with plenty of both!

I do recall the Bishop coming out from town to christen a batch of infants. Old Purple Pants had a lot to say about the young fathers who barely managed to crawl out of the River to attend the event. There was no noticeable increase in the congregation after that.

Father Christmas up the River

Each year since 1928 (perhaps even earlier) Father Christmas travels up-river by boat on Christmas Eve, with fairies to help him carry an enormous red bag full of presents for children of ten years and younger.

People come from far and wide to see the excitement as Father Christmas arrives blowing his horn and waving his ancient stick, while the fairies on board ring the bell. The children sing Jingle Bells and blow kisses to the fairies.

The remarkable thing is that the original Father Christmas, Alec Sharwood, was succeeded by his son John, so we have only had two in over 90 years.

In recent years, the landing place has been in front of the Yacht Club, but in the past he used to disembark at a jetty situated on the Village Green. Legend has it that one year some wicked people soaped the steps of the jetty, and Father Christmas slipped and fell on his guava in the River. I can well believe it.

Father Christmas departs to the sound of his horn and the ringing of the bell and the traditional trek to the ZRC bar takes place.

Floods

Floods are an irregular feature of Village life. There is a photograph from 1928 showing the Yacht Club well under water. Another happened in 1934 and a big one in 1944. I am sure there were others in between.

Within my memory, 1971 and 1983 were big floods, but on August 3^rd, 2006 we suffered the mother of them all. Ten houses flooded on the Towpath. Carden Street became a parallel river, with people towing boats along the road filled with their belongings. I rescued folk from my house and pulled them in my blue boat Mr Bean to the railway line so they could escape to safety. The RYC sustained R350 000 in damages.

We last had a “normal” flood in 2011, followed by a minor visitation a year later which brought down the old retaining wall next to Toft’s Corner. I suspect that when the current drought breaks, we could have fun and games!

Hotel

I don’t know when the Sanatorium was built but it seems to have been in position when the 1920 aerial photograph was taken. The hotel was known as the “Sanny” and by all accounts was a popular establishment. Many ex-servicemen returning from WW II stayed there. And it was just a one-minute walk to the ZRC bar!

I have the menu for Christmas Dinner 1948. Whoever was there must have enjoyed the numerous courses available.

Library

The Redhouse Library started as a private book club run from the home of Mrs Bonnie Grylls,  situated on the Henley Property to the south of the ZRC. It burnt down in 1950. 600 books were lost.

The library then moved to the room attached to the Hall and was run from there until it moved to the old Valeyden shop in March 1968 when it became part of the PEM Library service.

In 1999 the PEM attempted to close down the Library, but the Village took it over, keeping half the books. Many more have been added since through donations from within the Village and without.  Mrs Rhona Clark and her band of volunteer librarians run the show.  They have been known to have wine on the premises, which I think should be encouraged as an aid to good literature.

Lippstreu Gardens

Mrs T V Paterson, a keen botanist who lived at 6 Deare Street, built in 1902, collected flora from the kloofs near Veeplaas and Bethelsdorp and laid out a garden in the remains of an old quarry where a dirt road led through two gates to a donkey camp. This is said to be where the original Red House stood.

She died in 1936 and the Lippstreu family took over and continued the good work. Eventually, the Park was taken over by the municipality, who contract out the work. I am not sure Mrs Paterson or the Lippstreus would approve.

Playschool

The Playschool was founded in about 1954 by the mothers of the Village and a building was erected within which generations of Village brats were introduced to education by a series of dedicated teachers.

Eventually the Village ran out of sufficient little children to keep the playschool going and it was taken over by the Primary School.

Post Office

When the telephone system was first introduced it ran on the old “party line” system. Our number was Redhouse 26. You would recognise your own ringtone. There was no privacy on the line. Mr Nicholls operated the exchange at the old Post Office in the ZRC flat on Stewart Avenue. He would know exactly where everyone was. It was a boon for gossipmongers.

The system was first introduced in the USA in 1878. A century later, modern technology began to take over but there are still 5000 subscribers in the remote parts of the States. In Australia, where distances are vast, they couldn’t always afford to put up telephone lines stretching across the endless Outback, so they sent the signal down conveniently placed barbed-wire fencing!

Railway Station and Bridge

In 1875, the railway line from Port Elizabeth to Uitenhage reached Redhouse. There is an ancient photograph of a steam engine straight out of a Wild West movie to prove the point.

As a small boy I was absolutely fascinated by the steam engines. I used to hang about the station as a four- year old, as we lived just opposite at 24 Deare Street. On the platform, the ancient gardener was boiling water for his afternoon tea in a tin can over a fire. I managed to knock this over, and the boiling water landed on my left foot.

The station master came running to see what the noise was about and poured blue ink over the burn. My foot was nursed back to health by Mrs Bleksley, a nursing sister who lived in Redhouse Road. Her brother-in-law was the famous Arthur Bleksley of “three Wise Men” fame for those who remember Springbok Radio.

Everybody caught the train to work and to school in those days, and as schoolboys we had much fun. These adventures need a blog of their own.

In 1947 the Blue Train steamed slowly through Redhouse so we could all wave at the Royal Family en route to Port Elizabeth. Fifty-two years later, we stood in Park Drive to watch the Queen drive by.

I don’t quite know when the Bridge over the railway line was built. It may have come about because a train took out poor, deaf old Mr Deare on his way to the Club.

Nowadays, we have the Great Train Race, where runners and cyclists race the train from Port Elizabeth to Uitenhage. It stops to take a breath at Redhouse for about 15 minutes and the passengers rush out to buy coffee and buns, while looking vainly for a place to pee. All the while the Pipe Band plays stirring tunes to stimulate the bladder.

Redhouse Improvement Klub

In 2011, the Ladies of the Village initiated a soiree at which the hostess for the evening collects the fee paid by each attendee. This gathering takes place on the second Thursday of each month.

The Gentlemen of the Village were not slow to respond to this opportunity. RIK was formed. The meetings are decidedly social events. Fees are invested and occasionally spent on useful projects to enhance the appearance of the Village. Members take turns as Quartermaster, supplying eats as blotting paper is essential at these gatherings.

The only downside is that Friday mornings are low on productivity.

Redhouse Primary School

As early as 1909 the school had 23 pupils from Sub A to Standard 7 (Grade 1 to Grade 9 in modern parlance). Miss Sadie McAdam was the principal and school was held in the Village Hall. In 1953 it moved temporarily to the Yacht Club while repairs were done to the Hall.

In those days, pupils came from Veeplaas as well as the Village.

Miss van Loggenberg was my teacher. She came in from Uitenhage by train. She was decidedly old school.  I remember her telling us that mankind would never travel to the Moon because it wasn’t God’s will.

The new building at the end of De Kock Street was first occupied in 1959 – I was one of four standard 5 pupils. There were really just a handful of us. Now the school has hundreds of pupils, mainly drawn from the Motherwell township.

Redhouse Ratepayers Association

The origins of the RRA are shrouded in the mists of time, when Redhouse fell within the jurisdiction of the Divisional Council.

In the 1960s the Village was incorporated in Port Elizabeth. Its dealings with the local authority have become more difficult over time as the present-day Nelson Mandela Municipality is a political shambles. Basic services keep going, but the general vacuum created by municipal paralysis will result in the RRA taking on more local governance. Which is a good thing. Why should citizens not run their own affairs wherever possible?

The Committee includes representatives from each quadrant of the Village, and it has a structure incorporating infrastructure, communications, security and planning.

And at least once a year the age-old tradition of debating what to do about the dreadful plague of egrets is upheld. These birds are a curse laid upon the Village by long-lost Khoisan witchdoctors, and I have no doubt they will be with us forever.

Redhouse Women’s Association

In 1904, the splendidly named Redhouse Women’s Vigilance Committee was established. It conjures up images of stern women standing at the back door of the ZRC waiting to drag their insensate husbands home.

In the 1970s they gave up that particular battle and renamed themselves the Redhouse Women’s Association. Read all about them under Village Hall.

Security patrols

Security duty has been a way of life since as long as I can remember. The vast majority of patrols were without incident but every so often we had some fun.

There was a time in the late 1960s when a determined burglar broke into the primary school on a regular basis. An ambush was set up one night in the line of pine trees on the school border. There a posse lay in wait for our friend to pitch up, which he duly did. The plan was to let him break into the building, then apprehend him.

At the critical moment, the guard commander and his 2IC, who had been enjoying a party at the ZRC, arrived noisily in their large Mercedes to check on the posse.

The burglar took to his heels through the bundu, pursued by a fusillade of bullets from a variety of firearms including my Army rifle. We never found the body.

At one time we had daylight security, provided by a series of dubious characters. One-legged Nick caught a very long cobra and stuck it in his bag while chatting away a little carelessly. The cobra bit his thumb.

Nick arrived at the hospital and was booked in. Of course, they don’t like firearms, so he was relieved of that, which took some filling in of forms. The patient was by now beginning to feel the effect of the venom, and they were about to rush him into the theatre when they noticed his bag and enquired about its contents. You can imagine the pandemonium when the irate cobra was revealed!

Septic tanks

I have always imagined that septic tanks were in operation from the time of the first houses being built. But it is only in the 1950s that they became a regular feature. Before that, a coloured gent called Roman operated the bucket system. He would collect them in his donkey cart. Where he deposited the contents remains a mystery.

Shops

We don’t have shops in the Village, for security reasons. But once upon a time we had three! The old hotel’s last gasp was a short-lived shop, there was for a time one at 14 Deare Street, but the original shop, run by the Valayden family from Veeplaas, was situated in the current library building.

I well remember being sent off to Sunday School as a small boy, clutching my “tickey” for collection. The temptation of a glass bottle of ice-cold Coca-Cola from Valayden’s fridge proved too much for me! A tickey was the equivalent of two and a half cents!

Village Hall

The wood and corrugated iron Hall was opened in 1911. The structure included a stage because Mr JC Carden had a keen interest in amateur theatricals.  The younger people insisted on a well-sprung floor for dancing. The building was lit by acetylene gas from a plant housed in a shed behind the Hall. In later years, an old crone called Witchy lived there. 

In 1912 the kitchen was added and after that came the veranda. In 1946 a flush toilet was built for the ladies which meant they didn’t have to bring their personal chamber pots to events.

In 1918 the Spanish Flu struck and two nursing sisters, Sarah Toft and a Mrs Arnold, set up a hospital in the Hall. They didn’t lose a single patient, no doubt due to the daily ration of champagne.

The magnificent doors to the Hall were donated by Mrs Toft in 1937. They originally came from the Royal Exchange in London, via the Standard Bank building in Port Elizabeth.

Ten years earlier, a pair of teak gates was erected as a memorial to the JO Paterson family who had come to live in Redhouse in 1902.

The Hall has been a Sunday school, a church and a chapel-of-rest prior to burial. It housed the Redhouse Primary School at one time and the Badminton Club. Dances, concerts, wedding receptions and adult education classes have all taken place within its precincts.

The building has a Conservation-worthy certificate and a citation from the Simon van der Stel Foundation.

I have many happy memories of happenings in the Hall. On one occasion, a Roman Orgy was held, and you had to go dressed accordingly. My outfit consisted of a helmet (the plastic insert from my Army “staaldak”) decorated with palm fronds secured with glue, somebody’s ballet tutu, and a Victorian cavalry sabre.

Entrance was via a colonnade of white columns. There were no tables and chairs set out, only mattresses on the floor.   You ate and drank in a prone position. I recall a large fellow flicking my sword into the wooden wall where it stuck quivering, no doubt to the consternation of the lady ghost who resides in the Hall.

I distinctly remember pouring red wine over the head of the fellow lying next to me, possibly to wake him up. Such delightful decadence!

Villager

The Villager is a monthly magazine which was started in 1966 and is still going strong. It was originally printed on an old Gestetner machine. It is a real treasure trove of local information and must form part of the keen student’s research. For many years it was managed by the late Nancy Goddard who had a knack for seeking out newcomers to the Village and ensuring that they were welcomed into the local scene.

Zwartkops Conservancy

The Zwartkops Trust (now Conservancy) was formed in 1968 to protect the River from a host of enemies including national, provincial and local authorities, commerce and industry, and the indigenous population.

Its activities include environmental education, litter picking, pollution spotting, harassing the council and much more. Have a look at www.zwartkopsconservancy.org for the full story.

Currently, the ZC is on a mission to restore water to the former salt pans across the River and to the north of Redhouse. This will bring back the thousands of birds who formally graced these dry and dusty pans, an essential step in the long process of securing international Ramsar Wetland status.

One project will see the freshwater which pours down the evil Motherwell Canal in prodigious volumes diverted from the River into the pans.

The ZC also has plans to build a barge upon which will be housed a large pump and a diesel motor. The barge will be towed to spots convenient for pumping salt water into the pans. The reason for a floating pump is security. The barge be will moored in the Village to protect it from the vandals who destroyed the land-based pumphouse and caused the salt company to cease operations.

It has been suggested that a 30 calibre Browning machine gun is a necessary accessory, good for the removal of gillnetters, hunting dog owners, ANC councillors and other riff-raff surplus to requirements.

Zwartkops Rowing Club

As previously recorded, the ZRC came into existence in 1873, the fourth of four rowing clubs founded around that time at Redhouse. It is the oldest surviving rowing club in South Africa. Without doubt, this ancient establishment needs its own more detailed history.

The club’s first building was a boathouse erected in a hurry to house the brand new four-oar arriving from England at a cost of £67 4s 8d, approximately £7333 or R164738  in today’s money. Which means that a quart of Windhoek Draught would have cost 22 cents in 1873!

The first clubhouse was rented from a member of the original committee, Mr Fred Levick, and was situated somewhere in the vicinity of 36 and 38 Towpath. In 1896 it was uprooted and re-erected in its present position. Several alterations have been carried out on the ancient structure and no doubt more will happen in the future.

Many hilarious tales could be told of Club life. There is a narrow exterior alleyway which runs along the length of the main bar and snooker room. Members frequently placed their beer glasses on the windowsill while playing their shots. On occasion, a teenage hand would appear through the window and stealthily remove a glass, returning it a few seconds later minus a good “sluk”. Eventually this was noticed, and the alarm raised but the miscreants always escaped.

The Centenary celebrations in 1973 involved a huge amount of preparation and the end result was a great success. One of the unplanned events was a gigantic rugby scrum which took place in the main bar, about fifteen members a side. Nobody died, surprisingly, but the carpet tiles were torn up and a piece of one distinguished member’s scalp was pinned to the bar like a Red Indian trophy for ages afterwards.

What’s next?

Well, that is the end of the series! For those who remember poor !Click from Episode One, I regret to say we are still waiting for DNA evidence to determine who was most likely to have killed him!

The entire series will shortly be available in book form, to be sold in aid of the Redhouse Women’s Association to assist the ladies in maintaining the Village Hall in the state to which the Grand Old Lady has become accustomed!

Should you be interested in purchasing a copy or two – think Christmas presents – please email me on frank@fcbs.co.za.

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