East Fort

The remains of the largest fortification built by the British during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) can still to be seen today on Strubenkop in Lynnwood, Pretoria. The site today is a nature reserve managed by the City of Tshwane but apart from the remains of the fort nothing much is left on the hill. It is therefore believed that the reserve was proclaimed to preserve what was left of the building.

The history of the Anglo-Boer War in Pretoria has been quite well documented. It was a war between the two Boer Republics (the Transvaal or Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek and the Orange Free State) and Great Britain. After the British captured Pretoria on 5 June 1900, they erected fortified posts at strategic position all over South-Africa. The main aim was to protect railway lines and other routes as well as to limit the movement of the Boer commandos. The railway lines were of particular importance as illustrated by the fact that the Boers also guarded them when they were still in control thereof.

Repairing a bridge during the South African War

By January 1901, many blockhouses (small fortifications) had been erected. These were mainly corrugated iron structures (called Rice pattern blockhouses) as these were pre-fabricated and could be built...

Hout Bay is the third oldest surviving formal settlement in South Africa, only Cape Town and Simon’s Town are its seniors. Its early existence was largely due to its abundance of timber, however, that valuable resource disappeared within 30 years of van Riebeeck’s arrival and agricultural activity was quickly established as a sustainable living for those who settled there. Around the turn of the twentieth century Cape Town’s and Wynberg’s sustainable water resources were exhausted resulting in the eventual construction of 5 dams which took most of the perennial water from the Hout Bay River and in 1966 the Apostle tunnel took the balance of the rest of the water rising from above that point. The result was the slow but sure death of agriculture and finally Kronendal farm ceased commercial operation as the oldest working farm in the country in 1995.

Hout Bay highlighted – for all the wrong reasons

A significant announcement was made on Heritage Day by a panel of heritage experts that one of Hout Bay’s heritage sites was listed as one of the “Ten most endangered heritage sites in SA”, Hout Bay’s EAST FORT (click here to view).

 A sentry box still remains but the walls of the guard room and officers' quarters have collapsed in recent years (Dave Cowley)

Somehow the ten listed sites, all of which are acknowledged for their exceptional historic importance...