KZN: A Photographic Historical Record

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Some depraved individuals recently desecrated the Durban Central Cenotaph and stole about 13 of the large bronze plaques for scrap metal. These plaques commemorate the names of the men of Durban who died in WWI and WWII. Fortunately a scrap metal dealer had the integrity to...

Sadly another heritage site has recently bit the dust with the razing down of the old Nottingham Road Railway station. If only Transnet had had the correct management, many of these old buildings in their portfolio, could have been let out on full maintenance leases at...

  Joseph Baynes came out to South Africa as a Byrne Settler and eventually settled at Nel's Rust in 1856. As well as building up a large farming operation, he built a magnificent home on the farm. As Baynes left no heirs, the farm was left...

Of all the images I took for the book Farmhouses of Old Natal (Otterley Press 2017), my favorite is that of Umvoti Villa Farm in the Umvoti (Greytown ) District. The farm which is owned by the Tarr family, is run by Linda and Dawie Pieterse,...

Named the Church of Madonna delle Gracie (Our Lady of Mercy), the tiny church in Epworth, Pietermaritzburg, built by Italian prisoners of war can accommodate about 50 worshipers. I have been trying for a long time to get access to the Church and I got lucky...

I have just posted up the Blarney Cottage album under - Galleries - Natal farms - Byrne - Blarney Cottage. The cottages are the original of those built by 1850 Byrne Settlers Sophie and Frederick McLeod in 1879. This posting however is an indictment of the...

Montrose Farm was expropriated from the Lund family by the Nationalist Government in the 1970's with devastating consequences. The ANC led Government has just adopted a policy of Expropriation without Compensation, which will have much more devastating consequences if followed through. "The more things change...

I recently was attending the Alan Paton Book Festival, at Eden Lassie wedding and Conference Centre, in the Tala Valley, where our book "Farmhouses of Old Natal" was being presented. Not having been there, it was good to visit another great functions venue, and meet the...

Many of the traders of old are only now giving way to the new breed of traders. The home Villa San Souci, built in 1884 by John Harwin, was a relative of the founder of Greenacres & Harvey in Durban. John started his trading empire...

Dargle farmhouse, originally a Boer farm named Buffelshoek was acquired by Thomas Fannin in the 1840, and is one of the older houses in the Dargle valley in the KZN midlands. The original house was replaced by the Dargle cottage which features in the album under...

KZN: A Photographic Historical Record