GEORGE NEWS - The public participation process for the Heritage Inventory of Pacaltsdorp, which was initiated by the George Heritage Trust, has started. 

The process kicked off with a first meeting last Wednesday, 9 March, at the Pacaltsdorp Community Hall. Attended by about 60 residents, it started just after 18:00 and finished more than three hours later.

The George Heritage Trust commissioned a number of its members to start an inventory in 2019 so as to ensure the proactive conservation and protection of important heritage resources and places of Pacaltsdorp. 

The funding was provided by a private donor who donated a generous sum for the inventory for an important town that is older than George and has been neglected in past times.

 Pacaltsdorp is a cultural melting pot with a distinct and special heritage that its residents are fiercely proud of.

At the first workshop in November 2019, the members of the survey team, Henry Paine, Nanno Evenhuis, Natie de Swardt, Kathy Schultz, Lita Webley, Marlize de Bruyn and Patrick Sambo, were introduced to the legislation and methods of heritage surveys and inventories.

However, the team had just started its survey work in February 2020 when Covid placed a major obstacle in the way of introducing the project to the community of Pacaltsdorp. The date for the first public meeting in March 2020 coincided with the lockdown and the meeting had to be cancelled.

During 2020 and 2021, the team has been working quietly in the background. Kathy Schultz has completed background research in the archives and has recorded the history of the community.

Blanche Benjamin and members of the Gwaiing Action Group in Pacaltsdorp actively assisted Lita Webley with the archaeological surveys. 

Eugenie Marincowitz is recording buildings of architectural heritage value within the Pacaltsdorp core.

Buildings older than 60 years have been photographed and recorded in the inventory. The team has studied the original 1875 survey diagrams for the historic core of the village and have included the work of Vivien and Derek Japha, architects who worked in Pacaltsdorp in the 1990s.

Paine, chairperson of the trust, told George Herald on Monday 14 March that last week's meeting was just the beginning of the public participation process.

The meeting was successful and the process is ongoing with people giving their stories to the trust's researchers over the past week. 

The public is invited to continue making contributions, as the inventory is a "live" document with no cut-off time for information to be added. "The inventory belongs to the people of Pacaltsdorp and we would like them to contribute," said Paine.

Once the inventory has been completed, it will be submitted to Heritage Western Cape for its approval, and finally to the George Municipality where it will be placed in the public domain.

The trust hopes that it will be added as one of the layers of the municipality's GIS system on its website.

Enquiries can be directed to thegeorgeheritagetrust@gmail.com.

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