Historian revives Norscot Manor’s legacy in passionate plea for restoration
Once home to Ernst Eriksen and his family, and built in 1935, the heritage site is now a community centre under the City of Johannesburg, with one wing serving as a public library. However, years of neglect have left it in disrepair.
They say if you don’t know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are going. This timeless adage was echoed by Mike Benn, a historian, during a captivating lecture about the storied Norscot Manor, a grand estate steeped in history and intrigue, on May 21.
As the historian wove a narrative of the manor’s past, present, and future, it became clear that understanding one’s roots is essential to charting one’s course forward.
He said, Norscot Manor was home to Ernst Eriksen and his family until 1982. The facility now belongs to the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), and has been developed as a community centre to serve their northern suburbs. They’ve already made one wing into a public library.
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Norscot was built in 1935, on a scale few could afford today, and was ideally suited to lavish entertaining as well as being the quiet, secluded home the Eriksen’s wanted. “It is not like the heritage homes in Johannesburg. It has been stripped of its furniture, but it has magnificent and valuable fittings. Eriksen was a magnificent man who was successful in business and farming, amongst other things.”
At the end of the lecture, Benn spoke about the management issues that need to be addressed. Councillor for Ward 106 Chris Santana said that he has a lot planned to address the issues. “I did speak to our DA JHB Shadow MMC of Community Development, Cllr Lyrics Mazibuko, about these issues, so, I’m going to try and find out… The money that’s collected from the site, where is it going? Whether it’s going to JPC or whether it’s going to community development?
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“If it’s going to community development, I want to see whether we can ring-fence that money to try and earmark that it comes back for maintenance to Norscot. Whether that’s allowed, in terms of law or not, I don’t know. I’m going to ask those questions.”
Santana said his frustration comes from the fact that when stuff needs to be done, it’s never the city that’s doing it, but actually the residents and Rotary Club. “It should be maintained, at minimum, every nine months, to give it a coating so it doesn’t deteriorate fast. That hasn’t happened. So, it’s one of these things that we’ve got to keep on fighting for. Again, it shows the lack of a maintenance plan on behalf of the CoJ to deal with these issues. I fight with it all the time. Where’s our maintenance plan? How are we dealing with the maintenance? It’s always talk, never action.”
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Steve Margo, a member of the Fourways Main Reef Rotary Club, has been in and out of meetings with authorities to get the heritage site back to its former glory, so much so, that he ran fundraising projects to save it from dilapidating.
Margo said, one of their objectives is to get people back at the site. There is an art show, where he says they try and encourage school children to exhibit, to bring their parents and their grandparents. “There were like 18 or 19 different courses and facilities that were active here. Then, when COVID came up, it went flat. What we’re trying to do is to regenerate those activities, which will bring other people in, if we can, on a weekly basis.”
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