Did you know?

RIVERSDALE NEWS - Brass bands are nothing new to Riversdale. Way back in 1890 the Riversdale Brass Band, with Mr Hauptfleisch as their leader, started playing in Meurant Park, which the municipality had bought in 1878 after Louis Meurant suggested it.

He laid out and looked after the park at his own cost, planting trees from across the world and beautifying it with wonderful displays of all kinds of flowering plants.

Not many people today would do that.

The band played in the park on Sundays and many folk came to listen to them. They often performed at large functions, like funerals and weddings.

One of the players was Mr Judelsohn, who was the jeweller at the time. His son, Perez, was deaf and was sent to Worcester School for the Deaf.

Here Perez learnt to do fret-work, which won him first prize and of which there is an example in the Julius Gordon Africana Centre/Versfeld House.

Perez has a Spanish name because when the Jewish people fled from Lithuania, some went to England and the Netherlands, but some families also went to Spain before they came to South Africa by boat. Later there was also a Junior Brass Band whose members were school children.

The park was almost literally washed away in the great flood of 1902, as the waters from the Vette River reached the steps of the Old Jail.

Meurant Park was never the same again. At the same time, the Universal Orchestra, which consisted of Petrus (Oubaas) Steenveld and the September family, also played in the park at various functions and on Sundays.

From 1894, the band started playing at the ice-rink for the skaters, which caused the attendance to double. They are now part of the outstanding Royal Crusader Christmas Choir which was established in 1962 and of which Michael Joseph is the present leader. - Information: Julius Gordon Africana Centre/Versfeld House.

The Riversdale Brass Band in 1890.