Originally posted by Liney The one thing I've found in my travels is that "old" takes on a relative meaning depending on where you are. I grew up in a city with history that went back to.... well let's just say the year part of the date only had three digits. Every day I would get the bus to school past buildings that went back hundreds of years, and to me it was just the scenery.
Very true!
As I grew up in Cape Town, "old" there was stuff built in the late 1600's and 1700's. I was fortunate to be involved with the preservation of may old buildings dating from the 1700's to 1800's.
I visited a friend in Shrewsbury, in the UK, and he said that night we'd go to the "new pub". The "new pub" was built in the 1600's while the 'old pub" was considerably older!
Here in NZ, everything that's old is really very new. The capital, Wellington, dates from 1840 and our town, a fairly "old" town in New Zealand, from 1854.
My ancestor, Jan Jacob Jarling built the oldest building in Plettenberg Bay. Only the walls are still standing. On 27 December 1786, the VOC entered into a construction contract with Jan Jacob Jarling to build a storage building in Plettenberg Bay. On 4 March 1788, the VOC noted that the building was nearly complete, and that Jan Jacob could be paid half the fee! In those days, retentions were not paid for a year or more after construction was completed. The building fell to ruin fairly quickly as the specifications and drawings called for the use of Yellowwood for the roofing timbers and whoever was the Architect stuffed that up as Yellowwood is a soft timber not very resistant to decay and subsequently the roof rotted out fairly quickly. Thus the age-old problem of builders being blamed for architects stuff-ups!
Jan Jacob Jarling > Martinus Jacobus Jarling > Petrus Johannes Jerling > Hendrik Lodewijkus Jerling > Marthinus Jacobus Jerling > Johannes Jacobus Jerling > Me.