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About Tsitsikamma Village Inn |
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A Place of legends, intrigue and kings…
Whether Knysna's famous George Rex really was the illegitimate son of the abducted Quaker girl Hannah Lightfoot and George III, King of England, will always be a controversial topic. That George Rex was appointed Marshall of the Admiralty Court of the Cape of Good Hope about 1800AD is on record and indisputable. The ceremonial mace he used still exists. History records show that he took residence at Melkhout Kraal with Johanna Rosina , who bore him four children in eight years. George Rex took on a second consort, who was in fact his first wife's daughter from another association. This second woman Carolina Margaretha Ungerer, bore him his fifth and her first child in 1809 when she was only fifteen years old. Between 1809 and 1835 she bore him nine children including Caroline Rex who was born on the 7th August 1813. She met Lt TH Duthie of the highlanders during a shooting trip and they were married on 12th December 1833 in the Barracks military chapel in Cape Town.
Duthie, later of Belvidere, boasted a military bearing and background and loved his sport of shooting. Legend has it that in 1841 he established a shooting box in the Tsitsikamma, the location was specifically chosen because of the prolific wild pig population. The spoils of the hunt were wagoned back to Knysna, where they were pickled in the icy briny waters between Melkhout Kraal and Belvidere. That any present day nocturnal journey in the Tsitsikamma invariably results in a confrontation with an enormous wild pig is proof that Duthie missed a few sows! Testimony to the success of the hunting is the apt name of the principle tributary of the Blouwkrantz River - Varkrivier.
By 1850 the English Settlers on the Grahamstown Frontier were involved in a series of wars with the tribes and the only communication with Cape Town was by sea. A simple tally revealed that the sea journey to and from the Cape was mere dangerous and claimed more lives than the wars themselves. Thus an overland route became essential. The biggest barrier along this route was the deep Storms River Gorge, which started well in the mountains and continued down to the river mouth. The precipitous nature of the cliffs created a virtual toboggan slide, which meant that when the gorge was, negotiated both back wheels of the coach and the wagon had to avoid the draught beasts from being overrun. Negotiating this pass and drift took a full day and as travellers emerged from the valley, they inevitably set up camp on the ground surrounding Duthie's shooting box, the then site of Tzitzikama Forest Inn, presently the Tsitsikamma Village Inn.
The camping area became known as Storms River and at the end of the 1800's when title to land became more formal, the first title for the site was registered in the name of the Mangold family - the family which later established the Port Elizabeth engineering fame. The family took to task of cutting down indigenous hardwoods. These were transported to the bluff overlooking the Storms River mouth, lowered to river level by means of an aerial cableway, and loaded on the coaster ship Clara, which anchored in the river mouth.
Henry Read was appointed manager of the Mangolds' milling operations in the Tsitsikamma. He moved the mill from its original site, at present known as the Picnic Spot to the bluff and took up residence in Duthie's Shooting Box, which he altered to a residential house. The yellowwood ceilings in the hotel and bar date back to this era. Other changes by Henry Read include the establishing of a trading post, comprising a shop and butcher, which saw the beginning of the Storms River Village, and established him as the towns first entrepreneur.
In 1946 Mangold's township interests were sold to a Mr Herring. The new owner entered into a partnership with one Forster a building contractor from Cape Town, to build a hotel on the site of the sawmill's house previously occupied by Mr Read. The trading post was sold to Baron Behr, who later sold it to FAS Gerber in 1948. Conceived, constructed and operated by Herring and Forster, the Tzitzikama Forest Inn lay immediately alongside the dusty main road, the artery between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, at the entrance to the Storms River. Whether it was nerves, dust or common fatigue has never quite been established, but travellers made the Tzitzikama Forest Inn, one of their main havens along the Garden Route.
Herring later sold his share to his partner Forster who kept the hotel for about 27 years up to 1972. His auditors Green and Seales bought it from him that run the Inn with a series of managers. The last manager a Mr Ron Wilson bought it in 1974, which at his turn sold it to Jan du Rand on the 1st January 1981 who still owns it up to this day and date.
The du Rand family upgraded it first from an eighteen bedroom one star hotel to two stars. During the mid eighties a dormitory called the Barn was changed to seven en suite rooms. In 1988 du Rands sold their liquor store interest and built on 16 Swiss style wooden Chalets. By 1994 when tried to upgrade the first ten old wooden rooms it was discovered that they were rotten. A well-known architect Martin Rattray was called in to help solve the problem. He suggested designing the rooms as period colonial houses around a Village Square. His proposal was accepted and all the old rooms were replaced and new ones added incorporating the Barn. 33 Bedrooms were built around the Village Square and the hotel was renamed as The Old Village Inn. The name was later changed to Tsitsikamma Village Inn.
On the 1st of November 2010, the Tsitsikamma Village Inn has changed hands and is now the pride and joy of the new enthusiastic owners, Chris Sykes, Irma de Villiers, David and Wilma Pienaar. Chris and Irma who have been in the hospitality industry along the Garden Route for many years, with David and Wilma Pienaar from Oudtshoorn, decided to ‘grab-the-opportunity’, and they took over the reign at this magical hotel.
We are now the proud owners of a 49-bedroomed upmarket three star hotel.
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