By MAEDER OSLER
Toverview has been gifted with valuable archival material about the extensive earlier land holdings in the Colesberg district by the mining tycoon and politician Sir Abe Bailey.
The Baileys still have a significant presence in the area – until recently, Sir Abe’s grandson, Will Bailey, farmed on Poortjie Farms close to Hanglip on the Steynsburg road east of Colesberg. He has retired, and handed the reins to his son Greg.
The first farms were bought by the Rhodes Beit Bailey (RBB) syndicate in the late 19th century. After the early deaths of both Cecil John Rhodes and Alfred Beit, Sir Abe continued to buy up and sell land in what was then known as the ‘Nuwe Hantam’.
According to a biography on the website of the Abe Bailey Trust, Sir Abe eventually owned 40 farms covering an area of 300 square miles, where he bred sheep as well as racehorses. But the archives will cast more light on this matter.
In a further testimony of the Bailey legacy and the long-standing farming traditions in the Nuwe Hantam, the archive has been donated to Toverview by Peter Barnes-Webb, grandson of the first manager of the RBB and later Bailey farms, who has also retired after managing farms east of Colesberg, including Grootfontein, a former syndicate farm.
Sir Abe travelled extensively in South Africa as well as between South Africa and England, but when he was in Colesberg he lived in the large and now historic manor house on Grootfontein. For some time now, Grootfontein has been owned by the Van Hoogstraten family, which, some 25 years ago, donated land for an extensive pioneering educational complex to the Hantam Community Education Trust. The Trust community health clinic is also housed on the farm.
Baileys continued to make their mark in South Africa. Will’s father was Sir Derek Bailey. Sir Abe’s other son – and Will’s uncle — was Jim Bailey, the World War 2 fighter pilot, writer, poet and publisher, who founded the famous Drum magazine. One of Jim Bailey’s sons is the renowned artist Beezy Bailey.
Besides the land holdings, the donated records also cast a fascinating light on early ‘colonial’ life in the Colesberg district, including early airplane links between Africa and Europe, as well as cricket, boxing and horse-racing.
These and other aspects of the Bailey legacy was discussed at a tea for retired and retiring Nuwe Hantam farmers, arranged by the retiring Baileys, in Helderberg Village outside Somerset West. Present was Maeder and Les Osler, André and Anja Pienaar, Peter and Clare Barnes-Webb, and Will and Nicki Bailey.
While welcome and valued, this donation (and others) present Toverview with a significant challenge, namely how to best secure and preserve these records, while also making them available to future generations.
As a first step, we intend to digitise all the documents, and place them in an online depository, together with an index. However, we are still deliberating on what to do with the originals. We may well decide to donate them to one of South Africa’s established historical archives in turn – perhaps one of those already housing some of Sir Abe Bailey’s extensive legacy.
FEATURED IMAGE: Retiring and retired Nuwe Hantam farmers Maeder Osler, André Pienaar, Peter Barnes-Webb and Will Bailey having tea in Somerset-West. Their spouses are chatting in the background.
So much rich history to be explored in the Colesberg region . So pleased it has begun.