The Treaty Tree: love the historic monument in your backyard

The South Africa Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) lists almost two thousand National and Historic Monuments: chances are good you’ve got one in your backyard. Such as, for example, the Treaty Tree.

My Woodstock friends consider themselves experts on their Cape Town neighbourhood and were eager to spend a day introducing me to hidden gems down forgotten alleys. As we set off to locate the Treaty Tree, their expert reputation took a mild blow as we drove up and down Woodstock’s side streets in search of an elusive National Monument.

The Treaty Tree leans over the corner of Treaty Road and Spring Street in Woodstock.

The Treaty Tree, situated on Cape Town’s original beachfront, was commemorated as the site of the 1806 treaty between the Batavian government and the British Army (read SAHRA’s proclamation here). No one knows quite how old this milkwood is, but it also carries the nickname “Old Slave Tree”, paying due to its reputation as site of slave trade and, unfortunately, slave punishment. Historic testimonies recall slave hangings from this tree’s gnarly branches.

It turns out that the Treaty Tree isn’t really so difficult to find, located on – you guessed it – Treaty Road. But the city that has grown up around it hasn’t paid too much attention to this venerable tree. Tall buildings block its view to major traffic routes, and a dilapidated parking lot encroaches on its small patch of grass. The Treaty Tree’s National Historic Monument plaque has been pried off the rock at the tree’s base, leaving us to Google the tree’s significance on smart phones as we struggled to remember which historic event it celebrates. And we speculated that some of the plastic packets caught high in its branches had probably been there long enough to qualify for National Monument status themselves.

Thank goodness for smart phones! A stolen monument plaque left us looking online for information on this historic site.

Back home, I perused the SAHRA website and was impressed to discover how many National Monuments I’ve likely driven past without recognizing them. And the nifty map function on SAHRA’s searchable database  left me keen to plan an epic road trip, paying visit to forgotten and revered National Monuments alike. It’s worth checking out the SAHRA website to find some of these fascinating sites in your own backyard. Who knows, maybe you’ve been picnicking beside a National Monument unawares.

Forgotten and a little neglected, the Treaty Tree is home to a disintegrating collection of plastic bags.

Do you have a favourite historic site that needs more tender love and care? Tell us about the National Monument you’re proud to share a neighbourhood with!

Want more history? Read about the 10 most fascinating lost cities in the world.

Read more about the Treaty Tree on Stefan Blank’s history of Woodstock, or learn more about the 1806 treaty at the Treaty Tree.

Want to visit the Treaty Tree? Here’s a map.

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