Johan van den Berg

In the passages below, Johan van den Berg provides a fascinating account of the various blockhouses built by the British during the South African War. The details form part of a larger report titled 'The Evolution of the Block House System in South Africa'. Thank you to Jayson Clark from the Tulbagh Valley Heritage Foundation for sending the report through. The pioneering work of Richard Tomlinson on this topic must be acknowledged. His seventeen year journey set the standard for Blockhouse research in South Africa. Click here to read his epic piece: Britain's Last Castles: Masonry Blockhouses of the South African War, 1899-1902.

1) Corrugated Iron Blockhouses

The earliest rectangular examples in the eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga Province) were built in January 1901 by a civilian contractor from Lourenço Marques. After that, the octagonal and the final circular patterns were designed by Major Spring R. Rice, of the 23rd (Field) Company, Royal Engineers, manufactured in kit form at RE factories in Middelburg (Transvaal), Bloemfontein, Cape Town and other centres, sent by train to the station nearest to their final site and delivered to site by ox wagon. There they were erected by infantry soldiers who dug a sentry trench round each blockhouse and surrounded the site with a barbed-wire entanglement. After the war ended, most of these buildings were sold or given by the military authorities to the owners of the land on which they were built. The provisions of the Vereeniging Peace Treaty also stipulated that the blockhouses be removed as soon as possible...

When the British army first reached Pretoria in 1900 during the South Africa War, Lord Roberts (Commander of British Forces) increasingly realised that the railway was of great strategic importance and that its long lines of communication lay undefended. This was further underlined by the destruction of the railway line and the detrimental effect this had on the transporting of troops and supplies to the front by train.

Relief Map of South Africa showing Railway Lines – 1900-1902

Safeguarding the railway lines, therefore, became an urgent necessity. Orders were accordingly issued that all posts along the railways were to be fortified. By July 1st, 1900, defences consisting of trenches and stone-sangars had been prepared at most points, and their numbers and strength increased as the attacks of the Boer Commandos grew more frequent. The wrecking of the railroads reached its climax at the end of 1900. The most important points along the railway line were safeguarded first, namely the stations and the train bridges. The oversight and/or the inability of the British, as they penetrated the Boer republics, to occupy the area properly, together with the Boers' will to resist and the decision to resort to mobile or guerrilla warfare (the classic strategic principles of time vs. space) and to take the battle...