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Facts about the Eastern Cape

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Following the frontier war of 1811-12 the British established a military outpost on a site about 20km south of present-day Cradock. The fort was manned by a detachment under Col John Graham who, at that stage, was stationed in Graaff-Reinet. On 12 July 1812 Ensign Andries Stockenstrom was appointed Deputy-Landdrost at Graaff-Reinet. His brief was explicit and quite detailed: he was to establish his residency at the outpost, and he was to organise for the construction of a drostdy, a set of administrative offices, a prison, and sufficient residential accomodation for his staff. Stockenstrom was obviously not impressed with the site chosen for him, and after a lengthy exchange of letters with Cape Town, he was allowed to transfer his residency to Buffel’s Kloof, a loan-farm owned by Piet van Heerden located on the east bank of the Great Fish river, which he found to be “most central and convenient for public business”.

Van Heerden was paid 3,500 Rix-dollars in ompensation for improvements he had made to the lease property, and on 30 July 1813 work began on a prison, and houses for the court messenger and the police constable. The new village soon began to take shape, and early in January 1814 its inhabitants petitioned the Governor for the privilege of naming the settlement in his honour. He replied that he felt “flattered by the proposition to give my name to the deputy-drostdy and can only in return offer my best wishes for its prosperity”. Matters were placed on a formal footing on 21 January 1814 when the following announcement appeared in the Government Gazette: “Notice is hereby given that His Excellency, The Governor and Commander-in-Chief, at the particular request of the Landdrost and Heemraden of Graaff-Reinet, has been pleased to consent to the residence of the Deputy-Landdrost, of said district being in future called Cradock.”

By the 1880s Cradock had become a thriving centre for local and regional business, and could boast of a number of fine buildings. A new town hall and public offices were erected in 1864-65 for about o6,000, and work on the new Dutch Reformed church, a replica of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields in London, was completed in 1868 at a cost of o30,000. Today this building is widely regarded as one of the finest pieces of ecclesiastical architecture in the Cape (Smith 1964).

The 1865 census indicated that Cradock had a population of 1,845. In 1875 this number had dropped marginally to 1,712, but by 1891 it had risen to 4,389. By 1904 it stood at 7,762, of whom 3,313 were literate.

During the colonial era Cradock was served by a number of good newspapers: the “Cradock Despatch” was founded in 1850, the “Het Cradocksche Nieuwsblad” in 1856, the “Cradock Register” in 1858, and the weekly “Midland News and Karoo Farmer” in 1891.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.