Fortified frontier farmhouses: English precedent for the Eastern Cape

Abstract

As an introduction to this essay, observations made by English settlers on the landscape of the Eastern Cape are quoted. In this way a link is forged with their homeland. The Eastern Cape, an area to become a zone of dispute and warfare between European settler and aboriginal peoples, is compared with the border frontier zone between England and Scotland in the time before the 18th Century. The representitive frontier farmhouses are compared in terms of those elements which distinguish the type in the Eastern Cape, using Sephton Manor as a prototypic example. The English border counties of Cumbria and Northcumberland are explored with these elements in mind. Pele and bastle houses are described and illustrated. Some passing comments are made on the local farm buildings. Their defences are described and compared to Sephton, and the event of its razing by fire recorded.