MOSSEL BAY NEWS - This week we will be looking at the history of the Munro Cottages, the whitewashed, thatch-roofed cottages that are part of the Dias Museum Complex, overlooking Santos Beach.
Mossel Bay was claimed for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) by then-governor of the Cape, Jan de La Fontaine in 1734.
At the time that the cottages were erected, it was just starting out as a town, with the first commercial buildings being built from about 1820.
The first farms in the area had been given out in 1788 by the VOC and for a time Great Brak River was the easternmost border of the Cape Colony.
Wheat farming was one of the main drivers of the economy, with the area supplying wheat to passing VOC ships since 1786 until the company finally left the Cape Colony in 1806 when the Cape came under British control.
The cottages were built in 1830 by Alexander Munro, a Scot, who was a retired soldier and shoemaker. It cost him only £25 to build them on land that he had leased from the Cape government.
In 1831 he received a licence to cull seals from Seal Island.
To help earn enough income to support his family of eight children he also built a tavern which was frequented by the sailors that stopped in Mossel Bay. In 1835 Munro was able to buy the land his cottages were built on and in 1837 part of the land was transferred to his son, Willem Petrus Johannes.
Willem was the first person to have a licence to catch whales in the bay. Whale fat, or blubber was used as the main ingredient in soap and margarine at the time and was also used as lamp oil. Before it could be used for these purposes, it had to be rendered- slowly cooked over a low temperature- to make it suitable for commercial use. Willem used to render the fat of the whales he caught on the beach below the cottages . In 1867 Alexander Munro was declared bankrupt and his land was sold on public auction. The restoration of the cottages was done in 1986 by architect Gawie Fagan, at the time the Dias Museum Complex was built. The cottages now form part of the complex, but are closed to the public.
Sources: South African History Online, Visit Mossel Bay websites, National Geographic Online Encyclopedia. This series of articles is done with the cooperation of the Mossel Bay Heritage Society, whose kind assistance made writing these articles possible.
Related article: Mossel Bay's architectural heritage
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