Imagine being back in the 1840s. Clanking wagons roll through the river town of Cradock on their way to the hinterland. Hear the clatter of blacksmiths, the crack of the drovers’ whips, the chatter of last-minute traders as adventurers and their families prepare for their long trek across the Karoo. More than two dozen Tuishuise line Market Street up to the Victoria Manor, where travellers unload to spend the night and enjoy hearty country fare.

The Victoria Hotel, as it was then known, was advertised as early as 1852; however, it had been in operation for some time before that. The story goes that the original structure was a simple private dwelling built in 1848. The hotel has hosted the likes of General Haig, Olive Schreiner (herself a one-time Cradockian) and, in the 1880s, all manner of diamond- and gold prospectors. During the South African War (formerly the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902), the Victoria Hotel was commandeered by British forces, who turned the cellar into a jail for captured Boers.

But by the early 1920s, the world had swopped over to trains and motorcars, with wagons a relic of the past. The artisans clung to their homes and, ironically, kept them in their traditional state because they were too poor to knock them down and build those modern-day monstrosities you see all over the platteland.

The late Sandra Antrobus started buying and restoring the Tuishuise in the 1980s already. She bought ‘the foremost hotel on the Frontier’ in 1994, and revived it from a dilapidated old hulk to a thing of Victorian splendour. Mrs Antrobus brought in an army of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters and craftsmen and restored the hotel, now called the Victoria Manor, to its status as the prime social spot of the Eastern Cape Midlands.

Today the Victoria Manor Hotel features spacious and stylish rooms and suites, and is steeped in character and elegance. Guests love sipping a pre-dinner sherry in the lounge before eating dinner in the elegant restaurant. You can also enjoy a drink from the Albert Bar, which could also be called the Horse and Hubcap, because a local gent used to ride his horse into the Pub and then serve his horse a beer from Cadillac Hubcap.

It is a much loved hotel visited by travellers far and wide who love warm hospitality and a good story with a happy ending!