Bellingham Homestead is a legacy left to the Nation, by Fredagh and Bernard Podlashuk, the founders of the Podlashuk Bellinchamp National Heritage Foundation Trust.
Fredagh and Bernard Podlashuk bought Bellingham in 1943 and devoted their lives together to building Bellingham into a world famous Wine Estate. As they had no children, they were determined that the Bellingham Homestead – built through the synergy of their individual talents, Fredagh being an artist, philanthropist and a society hostess, and Bernard a society host and winemaker of note -- should be enjoyed by the nation.
When Bernard passed away in 1993, Fredagh continued to build the Trust and when she died in 2002, the trustees took over this incredible legacy. The instruction from the Founders was that Bellingham Homestead should remain the same and should be used to raise funds for charitable ventures. The Podlashuks were totally committed to the upliftment of local communities, the plight of animals in distress and they were passionate about the arts.
With this in mind, the Trustees have kept the whimsical ambience of the Homestead, which is a product of the creative synergy that existed between Fredagh and Bernard and the love and happiness that existed between them for half a century. Although we have found it necessary to carry out certain renovations, the Trustees have retained the exact feel of the house, as though the founders had just stepped out. All the furnishings, artwork and objet d’art are exactly as they were during the lifetimes of the founders. The Homestead is now a museum and is open to the public on a ‘View by Appointment’ basis. Our 5 ½ acres of gardens, are also open for functions and fund raising ventures.
Today, Bellingham Homestead is flourishing and has been the venue of many bridal couples tying the knot as well as a number of couples reaffirming their vows. In addition to hosting functions at Bellingham, the trustees decided to convert the outbuildings into self catering cottages thus enabling those people wishing to enjoy the peace and ambience of the valley to do so.
The Trust is run by a committee of three Trustees, all of whom offer their services on a pro bono basis ensuring that all revenues generated at Bellingham are used for the upkeep of this National Monument. Additional funds raised are ploughed into the upliftment of local communities through various charitable ventures. In 2008, in conjunction with Imbali Western Cape, one of our favoured charities run under the auspices of the ‘Women for Peace’ umbrella, we were the primary donors in the building of the ‘Fredagh and Bernard Podlashuk Art & Educare Centre’ in the rural village of Kylemore. This facility, as part of a the Imbali Visual Literacy Project, sees 100 primary school children, and 60 high school children attend an art workshop on one Saturday per month, on a fully sponsored basis.
In addition it will accommodate 50 pre-school children in safe after-school care once funding for a salary for a teacher has been found. Our mission is to occupy children of this community in safe care besides teaching them the value of art education while keeping them out of the hands of the drug lords that prey on these youngsters. In 2009, we contributed an amount of R60 000 in the name of the Podlashuks, to the Franschhoek SPCA to assist them in the building of their much needed new facility in Groendal, a poverty stricken community on the outskirts of Franschhoek. We have just completed a fundraising drive to ensure that we were able to provide gates for their new holding kennels. We now move onto the collection of sufficient funds for palisade fencing of the facility.
