The old St Mary's Cemetery is situated between South End and the city centre close to where the Baakens River flows into the Port Elizabeth Harbour. Some of the graves date back to the mid 1800's and include some of the original British Settlers who arrived on our shores in 1820. For a couple more of my pictures of the cemetery, visit The Firefly Photo Files here and here. The bridge in the background is part of the Settlers Freeway.
Driving down Russell Road towards town, the Russell Road Cemetery is situated on the left hand side. On the hillside in amongst what is left of the grave sites there is one that stands out clearly because of the fact that it is painted white. The grave belongs to James Langley Dalton. Dalton was a survivor of the Battle of Rorkes Drift and the recipient of a Victoria Cross. The battle at Rorke's Drift took place from 22 to 23…
I've been exploring the old cemeteries around Port Elizabeth lately and revisited the St Mary's Cemetery for a proper look around. I think my interest in grave yards come from that part of me who wants to be a Indiana Jones type of archaeologist exploring jungles and discovering artifacts in long lost cities My friends were slightly confused when my Facebook status read "... is going for a haunt in St Mary's Cemetery" the other day. Always good to be…
I went to the South End Cemetery the other day to look up a couple of graves. In the old part of the grave yard I found this angel statue that has fallen over which tickled me and my camera's fancy.
I was walking exploring around the back streets of the Karoo town of Prince Albert and to my delight stumbled on discovered this old cemetery. It belongs to the NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) and the graves date between 1844 and 1884. Non of the graves really had grave stones, but they were all covered in stone mounds. It was interesting though that there was a couple of graves with small structures built over them towards the back of the…
Situated on top of a hill overlooking the Gamtoos Valley just outside Hankey is the grave of Sarah Bartmann (Saartjie Baartman). She was born somewhere in the Gamtoos Valley in 1789 and moved to the Cape as a teenager to find work. From here she was lured to London under false in 1810 and was exhibited around England as the "Hottentot Venus". She was sold to a Frenchman who also exhibited her around France before here death. Sarah died in…
On visiting the Somerset East Museum recently, I discovered this old overgrown grave yard behind it on the slopes of the Boschberg Mountain. I have a thing for old cemeteries and had a look around. Unfortunately the guy who was going to show us through the museum arrived and cut short my exploration, but next time I'm in town I will definitively head back there for another look.
Driving down Brickmakers Kloof (and over the new bridge), the historic St Mary's Cemetery is situated on the right hand side across the road from the old bus sheds. Very few people notice that between the road and the St Mary's Cemetery there is a number of graves. They seem to be Muslim graves, so I popped into the South End Museum to see if they had more information. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a lot of info available…
An interesting site I found next to the Somerset East Museum was the grave of Ouma (Grandma) Dora Dotyi Jacobs. Ouma Dora was born in May 1880 and was 122 years old when she died in January 2003. At the time she was the oldest living person in the world.She was laid to rest in a special place under the trees next to the museum. To get to her grave one has to walk down a path between the trees…
I was driving around the Klein Karoo town of Oudtshoorn looking for something interesting to photograph when I came across this old cemetery. It was surrounded by businesses and a couple of houses with a stone wall and old steel gate in the front. Cemeteries, especially old historic ones, fascinate me, so this was a huge find.The graves were made mostly of sandstone and the majority were so weathered and eroded that you couldn't see what was on them. I…