Relic collectors treated members of the Lower Albany Historical Society to an interesting account of some of the artefacts discovered on their field trips in and around Port Alfred at Settlers Park’s Don Powis Hall. Some of the historic items were exhibited to pique the audience’s interest at the talk headlined: “Show & Tell – Every Artefact Tells a Story”.
Darian Keeton, a fifth generation farmer at Hope Farm, has built up an interesting collection of items found around his homestead. Hope Farm, he explained, was a settler farm given to Henry Nourse in 1820 and then bought by William Cock in 1840 before being bought by the Keetons in 1879 for 5,000 pound sterling. The farmhouse was built in 1823 by Lt John Hope.
In 1879 Darian’s great grandfather William Keeton and brother, Benjamin, bought the farm. William married Millicent del Palmer and the couple had no fewer than 16 children.
“I have brought a Bible here which was [printed] in 1832; and all 16 kids’ names are in that Bible.”
That, along with the original title deeds were there for the audience to marvel at. The latter thanks Sue Gordon who found them at an attorney’s office in Makhanda and passed them on to him.
Relics uncovered on Hope farm included strandloper pottery (on the beach); hippo teeth, and elephant tusk remains.
“These were the elephants roaming around there in the 1820s,” he said. He’s also found ostrich eggs – “my grandfather farmed with ostriches here in 1910”.
Keeton had also found musket balls, coins, buckles, copper bracelets, old wooden casings adding that the area was a hotspot during the frontier wards.
Next up was agronomist, Barry Luckman who as a descendant of the Atherstones – medical and geological wizkids – has a keen interest in the family geneaology.
Luckman came to Port Alfred from England as a child with his mother who married Dr Harold Atherstone, a widower in Port Alfred.
“The lineage starts with Dr John Atherstone with the 1820 settlers. His son, William Guybon Atherstone, had a great interest in geology as well as medicine and verified the first diamond mine in 1867. In 1847 he conducted the first amputation operation in the country using ether as an anaesthetic. His son, Walter, was in charge of the medical hospital in Port Alfred and had much to do with establishment of the town’s golf club.
“Walter’s son, Harold, was also a doctor in Port Alfred.”
Luckman then showed William Guybon’s portable syringe holder that was medically sealed and filled with alcohol to anaesthetise patients. He followed his father, John, in the medical field setting up practice in then Grahamstown.
Luckman then held up to the audience the original golf clubs used by Dr Harold Atherstone while playing golf in Port Alfred in the early 1900s.
“Harold was involved in a game in 1925 with the Prince of Wales when he visited the region for a week and the actual game was so enjoyed by the prince that he persuaded management to apply the title “Royal” to Port Alfred Golf.
Theo van der Walt who calls himself a relic collector is a former Johannesburg investment banker who decided to move to Port Alfred 10 years ago for a change of lifestyle.
He showed the audience his “friend”, metal detector, Rinkles, his trusty spade and hat which were his main tools when searching through Eastern Cape thicket and bush.
“With the help of a metal detector you find all these little things or items at varioius places and I want to tie it together. And there’s so much history in the Eastern Cape with the Frontier Wars,” said Van der Walt.”
Among his historical treasure are musket balls, military buttons which formed part of the uniform cloak and Xhosa bracelets. The military buttons he found cover a period of 90 years dating back to 1826 and have the word Cape on them.
He said during the Frontier wars, farmers buried silver heirlooms and when they came back to collect them they had forgotten where they had hidden them.
“Lots of farms around here still have their treasures, buried in the ground,” he said.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, November 6, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
