monument

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Queen Victoria and the library

It's really sad that the magnificent historic Public Library in the city centre is still closed with no indication on when the necessary work will be done or at what stage budget will be available to do it.  The building was built in 1901 with the façade constructed in England and shipped to Port Elizabeth in numbered blocks to be reassembled in front of the building.  The statue of Queen Victoria was added in 1903 to celebrate the queen's Diamond Jubilee that took…

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19/07/2017
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Lister Memorial – reposted

During my weekly tourism slot on LuisterFM 90.6 last week the Lister Memorial in Summerstrand came up in the conversation.  Even though the presenter had seen the stone monument before he had never knew what it was for.  I just realised again that there aren't many people who did know about it and even if you had seen it you wouldn't know who Joseph Storr Lister was.  So I decided to report a post I did about it in January…

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30/01/2017
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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
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The Riderless Horse Memorial

The Horse Memorial has always been one of my favorite monuments around Port Elizabeth.  Not just for what it looks like, but more importantly for what it stands for.  Port Elizabeth was the main port of entry for horses and mules used by the British forces during the Anglo Boar War (1899 - 1902).  During the war more than 300 000 horses died in British service.  The people of Port Elizabeth was very much aware of the plight of the…

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04/02/2016
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Moth Memorial – walled off

In January I did a post about the Grave of Joseph Crowe at the Moth Memorial Hall in Uitenhage.  Last week I was in town for a meeting at the NMB Science Centre nearby and drove past the Moth Memorial Hall just to find a vebracrete wall has been erected behind the little boundary wall that looks like sand bags.  How thoroughly disappointing that the public can't see this anymore.

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07/12/2015
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The guy who built the 3rd Avenue Dip

As one drives through the 3rd Avenue Dip from Mangold Park side through towards Newton Park, there is a parking area to the right just after the bridge from where the Lower Guinea Fowl Trail starts.  On the edge of this open space is a stone bench with plaque on it.  The bench and plaque is a little "monument" to David Baillie Lovemore (1926 - 1994) who pioneered this crossing of the Baakens Valley in 1955.  The road itself was built by…

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10/09/2015
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The Great Gale Memorial in South End Cemetery

"Never before in its history has this port suffered under such overwhelming disaster as we record today. On Sunday morning some 38 craft rode at anchor under the leaden sky. Heavy rains had fallen and the wind gradually rose until, as the shadows of evening hid the shipping from view, a fresh gale was blowing in from the south-east, which, as the midnight hour was reached, had developed in to a hurricane. As the turmoil of wind and wave continued,…

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23/02/2015
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Bashoto War Memorial in Uitenhage

In Magennis Park just off Church Road (Graaff-Reinet Road) in Uitenhage is a monument that seems kinda out of place in this part of the province.  It's a memorial commemorating those who died in the  Morosi Mountain and Basuto Campaigns of 1879 and 1880-1882. Morosi's Mountain was the name given to a fortified mountain in the Drakensberg mountain range on the banks of the Orange River in southern Basutoland (modern day Lesotho).  This was the site of a siege during the Gun War, also known…

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17/02/2015
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Prince Alfred’s Guard sergeant-major

On top of the Prince Alfred's Guard Memorial in St Georges Park stands a guy with a gun.  Who or what is he? Not to leave the question open ended and you all wondering what the answer is, here it is.  He is a life-size figure of a sergeant-major of Prince Alfred's Guard, in full dress and standing at the "charge".

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03/02/2015