Somerset East

Somerset East is named after Lord Charles Henry Somerset (1767 – 1831), British governor of the Cape of Good Hope (1814 - 1826).

Attractions

Also see the neighbouring towns

Somerset East lies at the foot of Boschberg Mountain (1623m) and on the banks of the Little Fish River. It is on the R63 route, 24Km west off the N10, and about 180Km from Port Elizabeth.

Boschberg Nature Reserve

Boschberg Nature Reserve (2'050Ha) has 16 watefalls, and contains natural forest.

There is a 15Km hiking trail with a circular route to an overnight hut at the summit of Boschberg mountain.

Architecture

There are 13 buildings in town which are national monuments:

• Hope Church, The Congregational Church of Somerset East
• Hope Church Parsonage
• 49 Paulet Street - dating between 1825 and 1830, originally belonging to Robert Robinson
• 60 Paulet Street - dating between 1825 and 1830, originally belonging to Jan Jonathan Durandt
• 62 Paulet Street - dating between 1825 and 1830, originally belonging to William McDonald Mackay
• Bellevue Seminary - built in 1881 as school
• Mill House - built in Georgian style and was once thought to be part of the original homestead of the old experimental farm (Somerset Farm). This view is no longer accepted, but the building is very old and defintiely one of the earliest.
• 154 Nojoli Street - originally belonging to J van Dyk, dating from the 1830s
• Dutch Reformed Church - consecrated in 1833. Some ministers were: George Morgan, John Pears, Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (1835 – 1908; or Onze Jan, known as one of the earliest proponents of the Afrikaans language)
• Gill College, dating from 1869
• Gill College House, dating from 1892

Old Wesleyan Chapel

Originally the old officer's mess built in Georgian style, it became a chapel, consecrated in 1828. In 1835 it became the parsonage of the Dutch Reformed Church. Yoday it is the Somerset East Museum and houses the largest collection of paintings by the South African artist Walter Battiss (1906-1982).

Walter Battiss

Walter Battiss (1906-1982)
Self-portrait (water colour).

Battiss was born in Somerset East and spent his childhood here. The family also lived in Koffiefontein and Fauresmith. After school he became a clerk in the Magistrates Court in Rustenburg. He studeied art at the Witwatersrand Technical College (drawing and painting) in 1929, and then for a teacher at the Johannesburg Training College. When he was 35, he obtained a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from University of South Africa (1941), eventually becoming a professor there.

He visited Europe in 1938 and again in 1949, when became friends with Picasso.

He created an imaginery world called "Fook", of which he regarded himself as "King Ferd the Third".

National Monuments

Things to do

Birdwatching: Crowned Eagle, Booted Eagle, Knysna Lourie.

Fishing / Fly Fishing: Rainbow and Brown trout fishing in Glen Avon Waterfall pools as well as five local dams.

Golf: 9-hole golf course.

Extreme sport: gorge gliding and rock climbing, 4x4 routes

Events

Biltong Festival (biltong is dried raw meat): an annual 2-day music festival with about 20 acts, and 20'000 visitors, held in June every year.

Bruintjieshoogte Marathon: 25Km and 50km walk or run in the mountain.

Bruintjieshoogte Cycle Tour (between Somerset East and Pearston, which is 50Km west of Somerset East on the R63). For cyclists there are 160km, 100km, 50km and 20km routes, while for mountain bikers there are 60km and 25km routes.

Spring Rose and Flower show, held annually in September.

Fook Festival (2008): 23 - 25 July 2008. "Fook" is the imaginary world created by artist Walter Battiss.

Somerset East Agricultural Show, held annually in September.

Boschberg Classic Golf Tournament, held annually in October

Somerset East Museum Country Fair, held annually in November, exhibits country products at an all day market

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History

The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the Khoisan people. When the European settlers moved into the area, Khoisan, who had no cultural notion of property, often "took" livestock from the settlers, who regarded it as theft. There were many skirmishes due to these cultural misunderstandings. The San were evetually hunted down by the settlers to near extinction.

In the last decades of the 1700s Willem Prinsloo settled here. By the mid 1770s there were about 20 European families in this area. Around the same time, Xhosa people were moving into the area from the northeast. This again lead to skirmishes, leading to several "Frontier Wars".

In 1815, under order of Lord Somerset, a stockbreeding farm was established here to produce fodder for the British cavalry on the frontier, and to experiment with other plants, including tabacco. The farm was called Somerset Farm.

Lord Charles Henry Somerset (1767 – 1831) was a British governor of the Cape of Good Hope from 1814 to 1826.

By 1825, the stockbreeding project was cancelled, and the town of Somerset was established. The first stands were sold in 1825 and it beame a municipality in 1837. To avoid confusion with Somerset West, "East" was added in the 1850s.

Climate

Today's Weather Report

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