ABOUT
CHARTWELL CASTLE
The first (round) tower at Chartwell Castle was initiated by Jan Kokke Eeftinck-Schattenkerk, a Java born architect with a Dutch father and a Polish mother. There were some Boer war remnants on the property prior to his purchase in 1947 as Lord Roberts’ army had taken this route through to Pretoria. The property was initially named “Wild Olives” until 1986 when Conrad Penny (see Wiki) purchased the property and renamed it “The-Tower” which name lasted while the Penny family kept it as their residence. He continued its development in the theme of the castle over a period of 25 years. Locals continued to call the property “the castle” and so that name was established when the Penny Family vacated it as a private residence in 2007.
THE ORIGINS OF THE CHARTWELL CASTLE (1947)
(as told by Conrad Penny, Longtime and much loved Chartwell Community Member)
Whilst it is the Chartwell Castle by name, it is actually situated on what was formally known as No 1 Farmall agricultural holdings, a 4.75 hectare property located along the banks of the Klein Jukskei river.
After the proclamation of the Farmall area by John Rowles Tucker in the 1940s, (Farmall was named after Tucker’s farm in the South of England) the Chartwell Castle property was first purchased by Jan Kokke-Efftinck-Schattenkirk in 1947.
Jan Kokke-Efftinck-Schattenkirk, was the original owner of the Chartwell Castle property. He was born in Java, with a Dutch father and a Polish mother. The property was first named Wild Olives. For some years after purchasing the land, Jan spent his time building the castle styled homestead and establishing a poultry farm on the property.
THE MAKING OF THE CHARTWELL CASTLE (1986 – 2021)
In 1986, Conrad Penny bought what would become the Chartwell Castle’, unseen at an auction. After Conrad had bought the property from the 81-year-old, then widowed Jan Kokke-Efftinck-Schattenkirk (who sadly had prostate cancer at the time), he said that Jan could live at the Castle for the rest of his life. After shaking on the sale, Jan refused the offer to stay on and swiftly moved out. Unfortunately, Jan passed away 3 months later. Conrad felt as though Jan was afraid of running out of ideas, as there were many unfinished features of the house, which he had to try to make sense of and complete when renovating and restoring the original castle.
Jan had also invented some ingenious creations in the house and on the property. Some of these inventions were, a gravity-fed borehole, which could pump water and keep the tanks consistently full with no electricity, he also built a beehive into the back wall of the house, which Conrad initially objected to as he had three small children at the time, but Dlamini, one of the squatters who ended up staying on as a staff member, explained that Jan had done this so that the bees could pollinate surrounding plants and fruit trees and beautify the area.
The original walls of the tower are up to 500mm thick (0.5m) the original builder did not dig and lay foundations as we traditionally know them, but rather he dug a pit and filled it with rocks which were then built on top of, therefore creating a floating foundation. To this day Conrad claims there is not one crack in the 17m high tower.
Just after the purchase of the property Conrad and his wife visited it and took a walk around the castle. She hated it and refused to live there. Shortly after this, whilst Conrad and his family were overseas, in the hope of injecting some life into the castle, Conrad’s father got a team of men together to tidy up the derelict property. Once seeing the castle all cleaned up it sparked an interest in Conrad and his wife to see what this beautiful castle could become. So, the Penny family moved in in 1987.
At the time the unused poultry farm had 40 squatters living on it. To try and remove them without being unkind, Conrad stuck to a tradition of the day and offered the people a room to live in for one day of work a week. He gave them a day to all come and register for a room and a job and only 20 out of 40 of the squatters accepted the offer. Conrad converted the pre-existing shacks into cottages, where the workers and families lived. The men who elected to work for Conrad once a week started by moving rocks and clearing the property and house. The numbers of men and women working quickly dwindled down to 4 men and their families. Conrad kept them on as workers and eventually got up to 8 gardeners on the entire property, with some of their wives working in the house.
Conrad went on to make alterations and finished the building work and named it The Tower. In 1995 Conrad got ‘Accommodation’ rights from the City of Joburg.
Before Msawawa became a settlement, in the very early days, the Penny’s used to have otters living in the river, as well as a variety of fish, including Barbell and yellowfish, and the family used to have picnics next to the river.
In 2001 Conrad built the square tower, which he calls a glorified staircase with a lookout area at the top. In 2007 Conrad and his family left and moved to Cedar Lakes. They decided not to sell as they had such a love for the property filled with lots of fond memories. The manager at the time helped convert the property into a guest house and venue, and at his request, it was formally renamed from being ‘The Tower’ to the ‘Chartwell Castle’ as it had been widely referred to. On the weekends, many people would come to see Chartwell Castle and ask to have a beer, ice-cream or cup of coffee, and Conrad saw potential to grow the Chartwell Castle to something more.
Additional Conferencing and Event rights were acquired in 2015, as well as rights to build a further 15 chalets on the property, and a Liquor Licence in 2007. ‘The Vineyards restaurant was launched this year, 2021.
Conrad laid out the plan for the well-known Chartwell Castle Maze, which is the biggest known uninterrupted hedgerow maze in the Southern hemisphere (and the third largest in the world), made up with over 1,400 trees. The maze covers about 6000 sq.m. (approximately 1.5 acres).
After completing the maze, Conrad built a pool house, gate house and completed about 70% of the Castle, following the original style for the castle. In 2009, Conrad kindly donated hundreds of trees to Chartwell Country Estates residents. These are the trees which are planted and mostly thriving on all our pavements today.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE CHARTWELL CASTLE
There used to be a flag master (Philani) who would hoist the flags regularly. The flags flown were the South African flag, Britain’s flag (the Penny’s descent from Marchwood in England), Conrad’s family flag, the Austrian flag (as this is where Conrad’s wife descends from), as well as her family flag.
As the flags were visible when approaching from both Farmall and Chartwell, Conrad had a dilemma as to what order to position the flags in. After consulting State Herolder (Fred Barnell), Conrad went against the normal order which is left to right, starting with the flag of origin. He decided to rather fly the flags at the Chartwell Castle with the flag of origin (South Africa) in the centre and the others moving outwards. A spotlight was also installed to shine on the flags as the sun sets, so their color can be seen at night.
There have been multiple music videos by South African musicians filmed at the Chartwell Castle and largely taking place within the Maze.