James Clift
Rhodes Memorial Under Construction 1907
James Andrew Clift (1867-1944) left his home town Mousehole in Cornwall in 1894 to join thousands of Cornish stonemasons and miners working in the Witwatersrand ‘s gold mines. He soon found work fixing steel head gears onto the large stone anchor blocks that were used to transport men and ore in the underground mines.
In 1895 he headed south to work as a stonemason in the Higgo Quarry in Kloof Neck at the foot of Table Mountain. The quarry was owned by the Higgo brothers, Cornishmen who had immigrated to South Africa with their parents in 1850. The Higgo Quarry was one of the largest in Cape Town and employed as many as 120 masons at a time.
In 1896 Clift’s wife Caroline, son John Andrew (6) and daughter Linda (5) joined him in Cape Town. The Clift family returned to Cornwall at the outbreak of the South African, and settled on the Scily Isles off the Cornish coast for the duration of the war, returning to Cape Town once peace was declared. In 1902 the family lived in Fir Cottage in Higgovale.
By 1906 James Clift was working as an independent granite contractor. His first large contract was to supply and erect the granite for the Rhodes Memorial on Devil’s Peak. The memorial in honour of Cecil John Rhodes was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.
The Rhodes Memorial contract was completed in 1908, and realising that Cape Town ‘s own supply of building grade granite had for all practical purposes come to an end, Clift decided to open his own quarry and masons’ yard in Paarl.
At the time Paarl was at the centre of a thriving granite quarrying and contracting industry. There were several commercial quarries on the slopes of Paarl Mountain. Joseph Allen had a quarry on the farm Labori and Wilson & Carr owned the Bon Accord Quarry. Other quarry owners and operators included McBurny & McGunn, Bishop & Williams, Steward & Co, De Palo, Monteni and Minnaar. 
Clift decided to lease the Minnaar quarry on the farm De Hoop in southern Paarl. Today the quarry is just north of the KWV’s head office in Main Street, and surrounded by residential suburbs. He also opened a masons’ yard in Concordia Street near Paarl Station. In 1916 the Clift family moved into Sarnia Villa opposite the yard. This granite double storey house is still in the Clift family.
Clift continued to supply granite for many of Cape Town ‘s historic landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, First National Bank in Adderley Street and the Old Mutual and Post Office buildings in Darling Street. In Paarl his business worked on the Town Hall, the KWV’s head offices, the First National Banks in southern and central Paarl, as well as schools such as Paarl Boys’ High. His last major contract was the Huguenot Monument in Franschhoek, completed in 1944.
Today the business James Andrew Clift started is the oldest family owned granite contracting business in South Africa and managed by his great-grandsons. Their quarry on De Hoop farm is also the oldest granite quarry still in use.
James and Caroline Clift in 1938
James Andrew Clift (1867-1944) married Caroline Ethel Davies (1868-1945) on the 10 November 1889 and had seven children: John Andrew (1890-1918), Linda (1891-1966), Karl (1897-1902), Carrie (1899-1899), Elizabeth Emma (1904-?), William (1906-1994) and James Frederick (1908-1981).
Article written by: Marguerite Lombard (nee Lombard)
Marguerite would love to hear from people who have any information on Paarl’s quarry owners, masons or granite industry in general, email her at: [email protected]
IMAGES:
Rhodes Memorial Under Construction 1907
Clift’s masons, during WW2 possibly during construction of the Franschhoek monument. James Andrew Clift is seated in the centre, flanked by his two sons William (Bill) and Frederick (Fred) on his far right. To his left is Kathy Cooper (secretary) and possibly Pieter Haupt (bookkeeper).
James and Caroline Clift in 1938