Cookhouse ( af, Kookhuis) is a small village located in

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

province,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, some north of

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

and east of

Somerset East Somerset East ( af, Somerset-Oos) is a town in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was founded by Lord Charles Somerset in 1825. The Blue Crane Route follows the national road R63 from Pearston, via Som ...

, on the west bank of the

Great Fish River The Great Fish River (called ''great'' to distinguish it from the Namibian Fish River) ( af, Groot-Visrivier) is a river running through the South African province of the Eastern Cape. The coastal area between Port Elizabeth and the Fish Riv ...

. Cookhouse is part of the Blue Crane Route Municipality, situated in Sarah Baartman District, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Cookhouse was an early colonial settlement. The Scottish abolitionist and poet,

Thomas Pringle Thomas Pringle (5 January 1789 – 5 December 1834) was a Scottish writer, poet and abolitionist. Known as the father of South African poetry, he was the first successful English language poet and author to describe South Africa's scenery, nati ...

mentions Cookhouse in his journal. The town was also visited by early explorers and writers such as Dutch military commander

Robert Jacob Gordon Robert Jacob Gordon (29 September 1743, in Doesburg, Gelderland – 25 October 1795, in Cape Town) was a Dutch explorer, soldier, artist, naturalist and linguist of Scottish descent. Life Robert Jacob Gordon was the son of Maj. General Jacob ...

and French traveller

François Levaillant François Levaillant (born Vaillant, later in life as Le Vaillant, ''"The Valiant"'') (6 August 1753 – 22 November 1824) was a French author, explorer, naturalist, zoological collector, and noted ornithologist. He described many new species of ...

. Gordon's stay in South Africa produced scientific writings, drawings and maps about the region. The town is home to the Cookhouse Wind Farm which comprises 66 turbines. The farm became operational in November 2014 and supplies clean energy to the Eskom grid.

History

The

formed the eastern boundary of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

until 1819. The current village is said to take its name from a small stone house used for shelter and cooking by troops camping on the bank of this river. Another explanation links the name to the hot climate as experienced by the troops stationed there. The Cookhouse is located on what was the Roodewal farm owned by Frans Johannes van Aardt in the 1770s. He was born on 12 September 1777 in Somerset East and died in 1856. Frans Johannes van Aardt was married twice; first to Susanna Wilhelmina Tregardt on 21 October 1798. She died in 1825 aged 27. This small town got its name is in the late 1790s because Susanna van Aardt supplied provisions from her "cookhouse" (or outdoor kitchen) to riders and soldiers waiting to cross the Great Fish River. After her death, Frans Johannes married Maria Johanna Mentz in 1826. In the 1870s, the government of Prime Minister

John Molteno Sir John Charles Molteno (5 June 1814 – 1 September 1886) was a soldier, businessman, champion of responsible government and the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. Early life Born in London into a large Anglo-Italian family, Molten ...

oversaw a massive expansion of the

's railway system, and a route northwards to

De Aar De Aar is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It has a population of around 42,000 inhabitants. It is the second-most important railway junction in the country, situated on the line between Cape Town and Kimberley. The junctio ...

from

and

Port Alfred A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

was chosen by the

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately own ...

to pass through what is now Cookhouse. A station was built here, which became an important railway junction, and a small settlement formed around this connection. This railway station in Cookhouse is an attraction was written about in ''Cookhouse Station'', a poem by Chris Mann that describes how he imagines the railway station was at its peak.

Monuments and museums

*Cookhouse is home to the Slachter's Nek monument, commemorating the hanging of the five rebels of the

Slachter's Nek Rebellion The Slachter's Nek Rebellion was an uprising by Boers in 1815 on the eastern border of the Cape Colony. Background In 1815 a farmer from the eastern border of the Cape Colony, Frederik Bezuidenhout, was summoned to appear before a magistrate's c ...

who were sentenced by the British to be hanged in public. The monument was erected in 1916, 100 years after the execution. *Cookhouse is home to Thomas Pringle's Cairn, a memorial built to commemorate his passage through the town. *The Fallen Heroes Memorial was unveiled in 2007 to commemorate Cookhouse residents who lost their lives in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. *The Fairworld Fine Wool Museum is also located in Cookhouse and it shows the history of farming and wool production in the town. Willen van Aardt established the museum to tell the story of Fine Wool breeding on the farm as well as the history of the van Aardt family who have produced wool on the farm since 1797. The Fairwold Merino holds the current South African record price of for a

Merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

ram.

References

Populated places in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality {{EasternCape-geo-stub