British Settlers - Firefly the Travel Guy

The Roodewal historic site outside Cookhouse

Big monuments and historic buildings are easy to spot and often stand out. It's the ones that are often a bit obscured that very few people actually know about or get to visit. One such site is the Roodewal historic site next to the N10 near Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape. This site doesn't just have one, but three separate heritage-related items all linked to the same place. Roodewal Farm. I knew about one of them because there is a…

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23/03/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Grahamstown’s Bible Monument

Depicting an open bible, the monument faces the direction the Voortrekkers departed in Grahamstown has some very well known monuments and historic buildings. The 1820 Settlers Monument on the hill, the Cathedral of St Michael and St George, the Angel Statue, Observatory Museum with it's camera obscura and many more. One I didn't know about was the Bible Monument on the outskirts of town and I would never have known of it if it wasn't that I went in search…

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05/06/2020

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British Settler John Parkin’s farm

This morning a quick Geocaching outing took me to a small park in Fernglen where I found an equally small monument located to the one side of the park. The monument stated:IN MEMORY OF JOHN PARKIN1787 - 1856LEADER OF A PARTY OF SETTLERSFROM DEVON TO SOUTH AFRICA IN 1820,AND PROMINENT IN THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF PORT ELIZABETHTHE SUBURBS IN THIS AREASTAND ON WHAT WAS ONCEJOHN PARKIN'S FARM OF 1421 H.A.WHICH HE ACQUIRED IN 1826.I never knew this little monument was here not…

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05/01/2017