I wonder how many Arcadians know the history of the little suburb called Kilberry on Meintjieskop?
The following is an account by Lorna MacDonald, the daughter of Frederick Corbishley who purchased the land many years ago.
“My father, Frederick Corbishley, born in Leek, Stafordshire, England, came to South Africa in 1894 and settled in Pretoria in 1896. In 1917/18 he bought several Riviera erven from the old Pretorian “Jim” Meintjies, stretching from the ridge line of Meintjieskop right down to Zoutpansberg Road on the north and separately from TW Beckett, the adjoining land on the south side towards Government Avenue, stretching from Eastwood Street in the east to East Street in the west.
Having cut several access roads and developed a quarry using the koppie stone for the making of the roads and the building of high retaining walls for the terraces, he prepared the site at the top of the present Walter Beckett Road to build his first home Ridgedene which was a large three storeyed, happy family home.
Later in 1934, on the same level and to the west of Ridgedene, he built a small complex of three large flats known as Corbishley Flats.
His next plan was to develop a road west off the top of Eastwood Street into Kilberry Estate, up the koppie and along the south side looping back east to join the access road to Government Avenue below Ridgedene. His further plan was to link this road over the crest of the koppie to service the northern portion of his property with a road stretching from the western boundary to below the grounds of Government House (The Presidency) and down to Zoutpansberg Road. Tom Jenkins Drive did not exist at the time.
The first piece of land Mr Corbishley sold was on the ridge of the koppie to Dr Eustace Cluver in 1936. About the same time a house was built at the top of Eastwood Street by Mr Corbishley’s daughter Ileen and her husband.
In 1938 my father laid the foundations for the Kilberry house on the highest point of the koppie to the west of the other houses. Because of delays caused by the War, the house was only occupied in 1941.
It was indeed a fine, family home with large reception rooms and unsurpassed views of the whole of Pretoria to the north as well as the south. There was an attractive swimming pool and a bowling green set in a beautiful garden with trees that soon grew to soften the outline of the house on the horizon.
The name Kilberry comes from the childhood home of my mother, Mary Corbishley (nee Black) in Argyll on the west coast of Scotland. The name “Meath” given by Mr Tom Andrews to the single road into the Kilberry estate in 1975 is thus inappropriate and in fact, it had in its original planned form down to Zoutpansberg Road, already been named Corbishley Drive by the Pretoria City Council.
Mr. Corbishley died in 1963 at the age of 93 and the property was left to his three daughters. I continued to live at Kilberry until 1974, making plans with a team of architects, quantity surveyors and lawyers for the full development of the Kilberry Estate. Sadly our scheme did not come to fruition and the property was sold to developers.
In 1981 the property was rezoned and rights were granted to build multiple dwellings. In 1993 the developers Group 5 started construction of 64 units now known as The Falcons.
By Martie Hofmeyr
by Councillor Clive Napier
Linda Tyrrell secured a donation of 80kg of sugar and delivered it to the school. She received this note of appreciation.
ARRA will also use the funds raised at the last second hand clothing sale at the Scout Hall to purchase uniforms for needy children. We are waiting for the school to provide us with a list of required items and sizes.
Thank you to all who donated to this worthy cause. We will continue to liaise with the school and assist where we can.
The ARRA annual Art Exhibition was held on Saturday 12 October 2019. This year we showcased the works of a number of up and coming young artists which proved to be very popular with art lovers. Although the turnout was a bit disappointing, those who attended certainly enjoyed the good food, wine tasting, art and music.
ARRA would like to thank Harrie Siertsema and Seretse Moletsane for their hard work in putting the exhibition together.
The annual Halloween Trick-or-Treat is always an exciting event for little Arcadians. This year it was even more exciting with a torrential downpour just as the little ones were starting to gather at the Scout Hall. Fortunately the rain (although very welcome after months of drought) didn’t last too long and they were able to walk the streets of Arcadia filling their bags and buckets with delicious goodies.
A big thank you to all the residents who generously donated treats.
Wonderful things are happening all over the planet as more and more people are becoming environmentally conscious, from here in Arcadia, to Jeffery’s Bay in the Eastern Cape, to towns and cities all over South Africa where branches of Pick ‘n Pay are to be found. Worldwide action is taking place regarding waste management and the fight against plastic, some of it by well-known companies, others by individuals supported by institutions.
The regular Saturday morning market at the Scout Hall will now take place only once a month, usually on the first Saturday after payday. A new feature will be the Vintage Clothes sale.
This year we had Vintage Clothes sales on the pavement outside the Scout Hall on a few occasions and these proved to be very popular. Generous donations of clothes, linen and other household goods made it possible for the ARRA committee to provide blankets for the needy and to support other worthwhile projects that have come to our attention. To make the street sale a regular feature we need your on-going support. Instead of waiting for a call for donations, you can contact Rita (see below) whenever you are ready to part with anything you no longer want.
The summer time in Gauteng is well known for thunderstorms producing some amazing lightning shows and loud thunder claps. In addition to this Diwali, Guy Fawkes and New Year celebrations, with the accompanying fireworks, may be an extremely stressful time for noise phobic pets and their owners.
In Rotterdam a young Dutch inventor (eco-entrepreneur Boyan Slat) has unveiled a device designed to scoop up plastic waste. The solar-powered boat catches floating plastic before it reaches the ocean. Slat said The Interceptor will be able to remove at least 50 000 kg of plastic a day before it reaches the ocean. Two of the machines are already operational, one in Jakarta, Indonesia and one in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Read more at DutchNews.nl:
A great many people all over South Africa are supporting the Pick ‘n Pay initiative of making Eco Bricks by filling 2 litre plastic bottles with non-bio degradable materials.
Our Saturday morning Recycling Project with the “Man with the Van” will continue but as this will occur only once a month, some residents who do not already support Open Sky may want to consider other options as well.
Recycling is the responsibility of local municipalities but on the whole in South Africa municipalities have not been able to get this running successfully. In a few instances commercial companies have been fairly successful when working in tandem with municipalities but gradually the informal recyclers – the guys with trollies – have become major role players in waste management.
Some interesting facts regarding the guys with trollies: there are more than 350 000 people in South Africa who earn their living by scouring “rubbish” bins for discarded items that can, in fact, be recycled. A survey done by the South African Plastic Recycling Organisation (Sapro) and the SA Plastics Federation revealed that an enormous percent of all recyclable materials is obtained from “post-consumer sources” such as landfills. If materials can be saved before ending up in landfills, so much the better. The trolley men are hard-working, up very early to get to the wheelie bins before the municipal trucks come for kerb-side collection to swallow up what has been discarded. Their efforts generate more in sales than the cost of disposing of items in a landfill.
At present I cannot disclose information regarding an initiative in which the so-called informal recyclers will play a more formal (and respected) role in waste management in the near future. Residents need to make a major mindshift regarding the informal recyclers, whom many regard as a menace and annoyance because some make a mess on the pavement while sorting through garbage for items that can be recycled. According to one source, hard-working informal recyclers can earm as much as R3500 to R4000 per month. Their role in the ecomony and self-employment has been acknowledged and residents may have to think twice about regarding them as a nuisance and acknowledge their role and support their efforts.
Residents can support the recycling project of the men with the trollies by separating what can be recycled from what can be dumped. All recyclables items, such as CLEAN glass, tins, plastic and paper should be placed in any kind of container and this parcel placed on top of garbage in the wheelie bin. The recyclable items, separated from garbage, will be collected by the informal recyclers and, if not picked up, will be easy to recognise by sorters at the landfills who will prevent these items from ending up in the landfill.
In the Cape a woman has created jobs for many seamstresses after persuading hotel groups to donate discarded bed linen to her project. School shirts for those who cannot afford new uniforms are the fruit of this effort.
Wizards in the Eastern Cape have completed the first eco-friendly road incorporating waste plastic in Africa. A 300m strip of Woltemade Street in Jeffreys Bay has been relayered with plastic-infused tar. A further section of Koraal Street is to be completed soon. About 700kg of recycled waste plastic was used for this purpose. The plastic was first turned into pellets before being added to the asphalt mix used for the top layer of the road. About 1,5 tonnes of plastic, the equivalent of 1,8 million single-use bags, was used.
Despite being South Africa’s capital city, Pretoria has often played a supporting role to bold and brash Johannesburg and Cape Town’s cosmopolitan charms. However, when it comes to architectural heritage, the Jacaranda City is well-endowed. From the skyline-dominating Union Buildings and Voortrekker Monument to the imposing edifices of its administrative precincts, Pretoria might be deserving of a second moniker: the city of sandstone, brick and granite. But when you look beyond the impressive façades, soaring columns and linear planes of
Residents of our Ward 92 might be interested in the link below which takes you to all sorts of interesting facts about the demographics of our ward.
By Christel Andersen
Stock Images by Freepik
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