The Hotel (later named the Hydro and then Hogsback Inn) was established in the 1880’s by Mr Collins. Mr WG Wiles, the artist, bought the dilapidated hotel in 1925 from Holshausen, gave up the licence, and re-named it the Hydro.
He improved the place and built the first
swimming pool on the Hogsback. AE Burton in Cape Colony Today 1907
describes how a post cart went from Alice to Fort Beaufort in a
four-in-hand Cape cart.
He speaks of the magnificent view as they descended the ridge where they could survey the Tyumie valley and the Amatola basin: “The only hotel and its precincts constitute at once the store, the market place and the Post Office…. We were in time to pluck from the orchard trees the apples, pears, peaches and plums of the season. Never since we were in Devonshire did we taste and see apples to excel these at Hogsback. The growers send great quantities of fresh fruit, especially apples, to the neighbouring colonies and towns. The hotel tariff is 10/- per day.” The hotel had no baths or indoor toilets, guests would bath in the stream.
