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Places of Worship #7

Today, as promised last week, here is a glimpse of the Edwards Memorial Church, which overlooks the graveyard that started this whole saga. If you want to follow the Richmond Hill story chronologically, hop back to that post, and then read the post on the Synagogue, where the connection between the different elements of the next few posts is set out. Then skip out the New Years Eve and New Year posts, and begin again with the Red Location post,…

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06/01/2008
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Beehive Huts

Continuing with the Richmond Hill theme......In the early 1800s, when the British Colonial Government in Capetown realised that it was facing opposition from the local tribes to its attempts to colonise the Eastern Cape, it came up with a plan to bring in a large number of British settlers to colonise the land, and act as a buffer against the marauding tribes. (Of course they weren't told this... in a climate of extreme economic hardship in Britain at the time,…

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05/01/2008
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The Bubonic Plague…

Continuing the Richmond Hill story from yesterday (and if you are new to this thread, go back to the post called Places of Worship #6 for the background history), the area known as the Strangers Location and the lands owned by the London Missionary Society had an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in 1903, and were burned down. The residents were relocated to the Red Location in New Brighton, about 6km away as the crow flies, so naturally getting to work…

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04/01/2008
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Old House

The other day we gave a brief description of the history of the Richmond Hill area. We mentioned that part of it was called the Strangers Location, and next to it was a section owned by the London Missionary Society, and used to help house workers, mostly employed at the Port. Here is an old wood and corrugated iron house from their section, much of which was destroyed in 1903.... but that is tomorrow's story!

4 Comments
03/01/2008
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Red Location

As promised in our post on Sunday, 30 December here is a picture of some of the original houses that were built in what became known as the Red Location. Believe it or not people still live in some of these houses.The Red Location was established around 1903, when the black residents of the Strangers Location and at Coopers Kloof (Albany Road) were moved from Port Elizabeth. The name of the Red Location comes from the corrugated iron barracks, brought…

7 Comments
02/01/2008
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January Theme, best photo of the year.

Because it is SOOOO hard trying to select our best photo for today's theme, we requested help over the last few days to decide on the best shot. Thanks to all those who checked them out and gave your opinions. Based on the results, the Rainy Day in Richmond Park is the one we are using. As we explained, because this is quite a new blog, we didn't want to redo any of the ones we have already posted just…

34 Comments
01/01/2008
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Holiday Season at Kings Beach

This is how Kings Beach looked last week, in contrast to the wonderful clear expanse of beach I had practically to myself in this post. We have had some glorious days, and residents and holiday makers alike have made full use of the opportunity, although being more like loners ourselves, we tend to leave them to it, and prefer to frequent the beaches out of season!The harbour is in the background, and the tented roofs in the foreground are part…

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31/12/2007
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Places of Worship #6

Part of Richmond Hill was originally known as "The Location for Native Strangers" and was set aside in 1855 for the Khoi San and Mfengu workers who mostly worked on loading and unloading the ships at the fast growing Port. (Yup, I’m afraid the British Colonial Government established Apartheid long before the Nats actually gave it a name…..)The London Missionary Society was granted the land, and set up a Chapel for these workers. They also allocated plots and rough houses…

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30/12/2007
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Misty morning in the Graveyard

This morning we woke to a shroud of mist. This usually means that the day will be a scorcher (in fact we have been warned to expect a 3 day heat wave with temperatures going up to 35 degrees C!) so we took the opportunity for a stroll before it warmed up too much. This old graveyard on Russell road is one of our favourite spots, there always seem to be opportunities to get moody shots, and this morning was…

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29/12/2007
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Lame little fun fair

Every year around Christmas, the kids wait with excitement for the fun fair to arrive and set up on the dunes at the edge of the Kings Beach car park. It used to be quite impressive, with roller coasters, a big wheel, wall of death and pirate ship which flipped right over, but as the years have gone by it seems to have gone into a decline. This year it was quite a sad and dismal sight to see the…

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28/12/2007