Despatch

I'm sure you all know the saying "standing out like a sore finger".  One of Despatch's main landmarks literally and figuratively embodies that saying.  The Despatch Brickworks Chimney was built in 1882 as part of the area's flourishing brick making industry.  In the last 1800's a railway siding was built forking off the main railway line between Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage.  This siding was used to dispatch bricks from the brickworks to Port Elizabeth where most of the buildings of…

The brick chimney was built in 1882 and was once part of a flourishing brick works. Bricks were "dispatched" or rather "despatched" from here along a railway siding (later known as "Hitler's Halt") to Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth. Many of the older buildings in PE and Uitenhage were built with these bricks. When a town was developed in 1942, the name Despatch was chosen. Despatch became a municipality in 1945 and as everybody knows, today forms part of the Nelson…

The town of Despatch, just outside of Port Elizabeth and part of Nelson Mandela Bay, had its origins in the brick making industry. Most of the bricks used in the construction of buildings around Port Elizabeth was made in Despatch. The railway line from Uitenhage to PE ran past Despatch and a sideline led to the brick works. It was from here here that the bricks got dispatched to PE by train, hence the name of the town, Despatch. On…