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In
1886 there were only two barmaids in
Barberton,
but a year later nearly every bar in town could boast at least one
barmaid. The best-known barmaids were Cockney Liz, Florrie, Trixie
(who arrived in the same coach as Cockney Liz) and The Golden Dane.
Trixie became one of the most popular barmaids in town, simply because
she had a wheelbarrow in which she transported her customers home
if they became too incapacitated.
The legendary Cockney
Liz arrived in one of the Gibson coaches to marry her fiancé. It
is thought that she came from the diamond fields of Kimberley,
having arrived there from London.
Upon her arrival she received the sad news that her fiancé had died.
She stayed in Barberton
and took a position with Emily Fernandez in the Red Light Canteen
as a singer and assisted with serving clients.
Her photograph shows
a woman of refinement, intelligence, coupled with extreme good looks.
She was a real lady and excellent musician. Her name was Liz, from
Elizabeth,
and as she often sang with a cockney accent, she became known as
Cockney Liz.
According to legend she used to provide the highlight of the day
for many a digger. It was her custom to leap on to the Bar, billiard
table or other high spot at the end of the evening, and have herself
auctioned to the highest bidder, but no word was ever mentioned
about her morals. If available, the local auctioneer, Stafford Parker,
apparently would come in to auction and do the selling in his usual
high speed efficient manner. On one occasion an unfortunate digger
tendered 98 Kimberley Imperial shares, then worth £850, and as nobody
topped his bid won the big prize - Liz for the rest of the night.
Overcome with his good fortune he celebrated rather too well and
spent the rest of the night on the floor of the bar, alone! His
handful of shares were not returned.
Cockney Liz
later bought the Red Light Canteen and then having made a small
fortune, had a more
luxurious saloon built – the Royal Albert Hall
– into which she moved on July 17, 1887.
This wood-framed, corrugated iron covered building measuring 60’x40’,
was fronted by an imposing facade, and contained ‘all the usual
accessories of a Music Hall’. For a while Liz was the queen of the
town. The bar talk all over town was about Liz.
Later Liz left
town and nobody has ever been able to trace her true identity or
say for sure what happened to her, but according to an article in
the Gold Field News of 10 February 1888 it appears
that she married Alfred Percival Scribbens of Bristol England. She was married at the Landdrost Court, Capt
Carl von Brandis had the honour of joining the fascinating Elizabeth to Alfred Scribbens
in the bonds of holy wedlock. Stories abound, but nobody really
knows the real story, and so Cockney Liz remains as one of the unsolved
mysteries of the Lowveld, of which there are many. |
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