History Narratives

January 19, 2022

ANGLING IN HERMANUS SUMMERS LONG AGO

In the early 20th century, Hermanus became famous for another kind of ‘fishing’, which also had economic consequences. More accurately, it is referred to as ‘angling.’ Angling involved another level of society, being practised by middle- and upper-class males. Angling meant individual fishermen, not crews. They fished off the rocks […]
January 19, 2022
Hermanus History Society

CHRISTMAS AT THE MARINE HOTEL, HERMANUS: 1945

It’s not easy to think about events 76 years ago. But we are lucky enough to have a vivid story of the night before Xmas in the year that World War II came at last to an end. The Luyt family owned and managed the Marine throughout the war years, […]
January 19, 2022

SHORT HISTORY OF THE CLIFF PATH, HERMANUS

For tourists, the Cliff Path is another of the town’s attractions, to be enjoyed without needing to consider how it got there. For residents, a walk along it is a soothing and restful experience, away from the day’s cares. For the historian it speaks of 58 years of events that […]
January 19, 2022

WHO IS THE ‘WALKER’ IN ‘WALKER BAY’?

For nearly 100 years no one could correctly identify the person after whom Walker Bay is named. In earlier books on the history of Hermanus, reference is made to a certain ‘Walker’, said to be a ‘Surveyor’ in the Royal Navy, as being the person after whom Walker Bay is […]