This tranquil neighbourhood, surrounded by nature, feels like an oasis in the middle of town.
Essexvale is a little oasis of wildlife in the middle of town. This is according to Chevonne Bishop and her husband, Gletwyn Rubidge, who have lived in the suburb for 18 years. They have three children who all attend Clarendon Park Primary School.
Gletwyn is a chemistry professor at Nelson Mandela University and has South African colours in freediving. Chevonne was a restaurateur before getting into the swimming pool maintenance and repair business with her company, Swimline Pool and Spa. They’re both passionate about Essexvale and the Baakens Valley/Settlers Park area.
What first attracted Chevonne to the area was the tranquillity and the beautiful natural surroundings. “I used to run in Settlers Park. I always admired the quiet, leafy street adjoining the park and thought how much I would like to live there,” she says.
When she got the opportunity to buy a house in the area, she jumped at it. “One day, while I was running, I saw a ‘For Sale’ sign on the oldest and most dilapidated house in the street. I made an appointment with the estate agent that same afternoon. My husband and I signed the offer to purchase before we even looked inside the house. The house needed a lot of work. Over the years, we’ve slowly added rooms and done renovations, but we’ve kept the old wooden floors and stone fireplace.”
The biggest drawcard for the couple, who both grew up on farms, were the open spaces. Gletwyn grew up in Graaff-Reinet and loves working in the garden, which needs a lot of hands-on care. A flock of tame guinea fowl eat from his hand every morning.
“We love the fact that we have so much wildlife on our doorstep. We’ve seen crowned eagles, barn owls, Knysna louries and guinea fowl in the trees of our garden. A few years after we moved in, we found an abandoned newborn duiker and hand-raised it. We’ve had a genet cat in our garden and have otters in the river, mongooses in the lane, hyraxes (dassies) on the rocks and turtles in our pond – all natural inhabitants of the area,” says Chevonne. “We love our garden. It runs up into the nature reserve, called Wellington Park, on the one side, and Settlers Park on the other. At the bottom border of our garden there’s the Baakens River.”
Chevonne and Gletwyn’s house and their neighbour’s were among the earliest houses in Essexvale. Chevonne says that the first few houses in the area were built with concrete because bricks were too difficult to transport to the “remote” area of Essexvale due to the economic depression at the time. “Drilling into our walls to try and hang a picture is almost impossible!”
Chevonne says the street they live on is like a little community: it’s quiet and the neighbours are all friendly and know each other. There’s an active neighbourhood watch, security cameras in the street and everyone keeps an eye out for anything suspicious.
“If a chance comes up to buy a house in Essexvale, I would highly recommend the area. It’s really close to excellent schools and good shopping centres while being on the edge of a beautiful nature reserve and river,” says Chevonne.
We’re literally 10 minutes or less from anywhere we want to be in Port Elizabeth, yet we feel like we live on a farm.
-Chevonne Bishop.
Schools near Essexvale, PE
- St George’s Preparatory School and College
- Settlers Park Primary
- Grey Junior and High schools
- Greenwood Primary School
Chevonne’s favourite places in Port Elizabeth:
- Our Garden
- The river
- The hill behind our house
Things people may not know about Essexvale (according to Chevonne):
- The Baakens River, which flows through Essexvale, is home to a family of six otters.
- A massive leguaan lives in and around the river and sometimes steals one of Chevonne’s chickens for a snack, although she also loves the eggs.
- When the river floods, the bridge to their road gets flooded. The bridge has twice washed away, leaving Chevonne’s family stranded, as there’s no alternate exit. After the last flood in 2012, they set up a bucket on a rope pulley over the bridge so that they can order food and water to be delivered with the bucket.
This article originally appeared in Neighbourhood, Sunday Times.
