James Liege Hulett, born in Sheffield, 17 May 1838, emigrated to South Africa in 1857, on the ‘Lady Shelbourne’, initially to practice as an assistant to chemist, Mr Burgess. It was not long however before Hulett’s entrepreneurial spirit took hold and he started farming and acquiring property. His first farming endeavours in 1858 were at Mount Moreland, near Verulam, which were unsuccessful, so he moved on and bought 600 acres of land to the north east of Stanger, called Kearsney. Kearsney in England was a small village near Dover. His first successful crop introduced into Natal in 1850, was tea and this new wealth enabled him to build Kearsney Manor, which much later became Kearsney College. His first tea was harvested in 1887. Liege’s family took on the farming reigns and Liege became active in politics, a lay preacher, magistrate and was knighted by King Edward VII, in October 1902, after the death of Queen Victoria. The business was transferred into the Company, ‘J Hulett & Sons Ltd’ in 1892. This company was to become the listed entity, ‘Tongaat Hulett Ltd’. Further tracts of land in Tinley Manor were acquired. It was in early 1904’s that Sir Liege decided to retire to Durban, and it was at that point, that the stately manor house in Mentone road was built. The mansion was designed by Stott & Kirby Architects, and in 1906 the mansions was occupied by the Hulett family. Lady Mary Hulett, died in 1915 and Sir Liege, died aged 90, in 1928. Both Liege and Mary are buried in the family cemetery at Kearsney Manor graveyard. For many years, the Manor House stood vacant until 1932 when it was acquired by LM Loumeau and operated as a hotel under the name Manor House Hotel, was vacant between 1933 & 1934, and the run as the Kew Hotel, Nuttal Gardens until 1945. The owner J Vaughan Greene then converted it into a private residence until 1949, when it was sold to GH Langeler and reverted to the Kew Hotel until the 1960’s. Between 1965 & 1989 the property became the Morewag Men’s Hostel owned by the Nederduitse Kerk. In 1990, the property was sold to David Strachan & Taylor (Auditors) and then sold to De Leuw Cather Inc. and converted to offices.
