Castle’s rich history remembered

Trevor Whiting and Elaine Basson dig deep to discover the rich history behind the Castleview castle.

February 14, 2017

 Hidden in Castleview is a castle. Trevor Whiting and Elaine Basson are the proud owners of this piece of history and recently invited the previous owners to visit the property and share their stories and photos of the castle. Here the group takes a moment to smile for the camera in front of the castle’s turret.

Many people feel that their home is their castle; however, for Trevor Whiting and Elaine Basson this is really the case.

Trevor Whiting and Elaine Basson fell in love with the property’s garden, before they even saw the house.

The couple are the proud owners of the Castleview castle, having moved in four years ago on February 1, 2013.

They first fell in love with the property when they drove past it to and from their home in Stone Arch Estate.

“One day, while we were driving past, we looked at the rocky hill and said how amazing it would be to plant an indigenous garden there – let’s buy the place,” Trevor explained.

“There was no ‘for sale’ sign and we had never seen the house. We had literally only seen the bottom of the property, but we wanted to buy it.”

Elaine began researching the property and was able to find the then owners’ information and they made contact.

“Colleen Muller-Loesch called us back and asked what we wanted.

“I said, ‘there is no easy way to say it but we want to buy your property’ ”, Trevor said.

“Remember we still hadn’t actually seen the house,” Elaine said.

Discussions began and within two to three months the sale was finalised.

“Throughout the whole process Colleen kept speaking about the castle, and we still had no idea what she was talking about.

“She then told us to take a good look at the house and explained it was the castle of Castleview.

“We had no idea,” said Trevor with a laugh.

Previous owner Colleen Muller-Loesch was among the guests at the gathering last Saturday.

The castle was built by Malcolm McLean, a coal merchant, in 1926.

The turret was already in existence, as it was constructed to guard the railway line during the Anglo Boer War, so McLean built the house around the turret.

Now completely in love with the castle and its garden, the couple started digging into the rich history of the castle.

“We first went to the library to try and find any history on the castle, and after a long search we found some newspaper clippings from the Germiston City News, but that is all we could find,” explained Elaine.

“We then started looking for previous owners and were able to track down and invite four families to the castle, last Saturday”, said Trevor.

“As it is such an old building having the ancestry of who lived in it would be amazing.”

Guests were encouraged to bring their old photos and memories of the property to the gathering so that everyone could share their history of the castle.

“We aim to make a photo album filled with the history of the castle,” explained Trevor.

For a couple who never saw themselves owning an old house, Trevor and Elaine couldn’t be more in love with their home and have ensured that the history of the castle will continue to live on.