Bathurst is a historic South African holiday town in the Eastern Cape, known for its pineapple farming and tumultuous history. Its distinctive English atmosphere is owed to its origin as the first administrative centre for the 1820 European settlers. The name honours Lord Bathurst, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time. Bailey's Beacon, about 1 kilometre northeast of Bathurst, marks the spot from where the various parties of the Settlers were directed to the farms that had been allocated to them.
At the outbreak of the Sixth Frontier War in 1834, the half-built church in town served as a refuge for settler women and children until they could be evacuated to Grahamstown. After British troops re-occupied Bathurst in January 1835, the church was fortified, and it was consecrated on New Year's Day 1838.
During the War of the Axe (1846-47) and the Eighth Frontier War (1850-53), it again served as a place of refuge. Also of interest in Bathurst, is the water-driven wool mill built by Samuel Bradshaw, a weaver who led a party of 64 Settlers from Gloucestershire.
The Bathurst district is noted for its pineapple farms, and the 16.7 m-high giant pineapple on Summerhill Farm is a well-known landmark. The...
Pineapples are a tropical plant with juicy edible fruit, characterised by its golden hue and prickly outer layer....