My first visit to the Post Retief Barracks was in February 2017 during a period of rain that had turned the grass within the fort a lush green.
Four years later, and at the end of winter, not only was the grass dry and pale, but there were further signs of deterioration of these historic buildings designed by Major Charles Selwyn of the Royal Engineers in 1836.
Local clay bricks and sandstone were used in the construction of these buildings β both materials are showing serious signs of wear and tear. A stone lintel that was already bending and cracking four years ago despite being shored up with timber, has cracked further.
Compare the state of the first of the buildings in this row between 1917 and 2021.
There are other aspects of this fort that are worth returning to later. I will end, as I did with my earlier post, with the narrow gate in the wall opposite the officerβs quarters through which one had to pass to draw water from the Koonap River below.
Pingback: FORT POST RETIEF REVISITED – TATER TOTS ON SATURDAY
Time obliterates everything – eventually even the sadness …
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You are right – and wisely so.
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I love love old buildings. It’s sad and beautiful and textured all at once
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Woestynkind, you have echoed my feelings so beautifully.
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How interesting to go back….
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It certainly was!
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Wonderful. Looks like an ideal place to go and just be. To contemplate a bygone age and the passing of time.
β¨πππ±πΏπ³π»ππβ―πβ¨
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It was very hot and time was short on this visit – previously I spent some time sitting on the crumbling sandstone steps of the officer’s quarters listening to the sounds around me. It is interesting what comes to mind in a place like this in the middle of nowhere.
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π
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Fascinating history evoked
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Tourism assigned names to different parts of the country in order to highlight some of the main attractions. This area of the Eastern Cape is known as Frontier Country – this fort is one of many sites that bears silent testimony to the turbulent times experienced by the early settlers – and the many British soldiers who came before them. Sometimes I look at this hot, bushy (lots of thorns) landscape and cannot help wondering what those men thought about where they had been sent and what on earth the point of them being here was. As for the unsuitable uniforms they were expected to wear …
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Very sound thoughts, Anne.
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And still we invade other lands without thought of the peoples, climate within.
Love the gate photo.
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I like the view through the gate to the river valley floor.
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Quite the atmosphere captured in your photos, Anne. Despite the years and climate the building still stands!
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It is rather surprising, especially that the dressed stone hasn’t been carted away during the intervening years since the building was abandoned.
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There are so many history buffs from around the world that, if just a minute percentage of them could be attracted to our historic sites, it could be a huge boon for our hard-hit tourism industry. Sad to see such an opportunity be allowed to go to ruin, literally.
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KZN has made the most of its Anglo-Boer War sites in the past – and post-pandemic will probably do so again. Despite being designated ‘Frontier Country’, tourism to such sites here appear to be sporadic. I only have to look at our crumbling town and the phenomenal tourist potential it has that is going to waste.
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Dit is baie interessant. Hoekom sal jy my aanraai om daarheen te gaan?
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Hierdie deel van die Oos Kaap is baie mooi: berge, klowe, oop gras, blomme … Post Retief is vir my interessant omdat ons kan sien hoe dit gebou was uit sandsteen, klei bakstene, hout en zinc. Daar is perde stalle, verblyfplek vir die offisiere, ‘n kombuis … ek bewonder my oor wat daardie soldate gedink het om in ons land te wees en waarom … dit is ‘n plek om te sit en droom – en bly te voel dat ons hier behoort.
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Dankie π
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