Bringing the past to life
Fascinating gems about the lives of people in the past are found in ‘Eavesdropping on Victorian Natal’
y word is my bond” was a familiar phrase used by Victorian British businessmen, and one that would become widely known on the streets of Natal.
It’s one of the many fascinating facts which appear in Carol MacCallum’s latest book, Eavesdropping on
The settlers, who set down roots and established a new life as frontierspeople, may have changed professions, but their integrity remained the same, she says. This integrity stayed with them as they worked to build and develop the colony.
Until the arrival of the settlers, Natal under the Voortrekker’s government, had an agricultural economy. This changed when British businessmen and tradesmen started arriving.
J. C. Cato, who became Durban’s first mayor, started Durban’s initial trading store. During his term as mayor, the city centre expanded to hold the town hall, post office, Royal Hotel, an Anglican church, and eventually a railway station.
The harbour was developed to overcome the sandbar which until then prevented ships from entering the bay, opening the port for the opportunity for trade with the outside world.
Durban was declared a borough in 1854 and Cato, as the mayor, set up a task team to attack the swamp across West Street because it hindered the wagon traffic.
Money was raised and a contract signed to dig a drain and build a bridge. When completed, this raised West Street above the swamp bottom.
The Victorian era introduced among other things, the railways. Durban was where the first railway line started in Natal, from the Point into Durban centre. It later extended into the interior and eventually a line ran from Durban through to the then Transvaal.
Durban’s Botanical Gardens are the oldest surviving gardens on the continent. They started in 1849 with the agricultural society being founded by Dr W. Stanger.
Over its initial years it had several curators, each introducing new varieties of plants and water systems. It gave a lot of pleasure to Durban’s people and visitors.
The Natal Mercury is very much a part of Durban, and has been since it started in 1852. It played a large part in educating Natalians with knowledge of affairs both local and abroad.
George Robinson started and ran the paper. His son John Robinson entered the business as a partner and later had a political career leading Natal into responsible government, and becoming the first prime minister. Between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, several little towns and villages had developed. The biggest of these at that time being Pinetown named after Sir Benjamin Pine.
Archibald Murray arrived with his family in 1850, and was known as the creator of Pinetown. He ran a hotel called Fort Funk.
Another settler in Pinetown after whom Hill Street is named was Clement J. Hill. One of his ancestors was instrumental in introducing the “Penny Post” in England.
Moving on the route to Pietermaritzburg, we find Westville, New Germany, Kloof, Gillitts, Mariannhill Monastery and finally Cato Ridge. Each of these little villages had someone whom the area was named after.
Cato Ridge was named after a farm given to J.C. Cato when he assisted the Boers, and is the last stop before we reach Pietermaritzburg, the capital city of KwaZulu-Natal.
Pietermaritzburg by then, had grown and extended beyond the city centre to the suburb Scottsville, a suburb to which the electric tram ran, and where many new institutions and clubs had crossed over the uMsunduzi River and started, and are still functioning today.
Examples of these are the Maritzburg Golf Club, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Scottsville Race Course, Natal Mounted Police and many others.
The first watering hole in this new suburb was the Star and Garter on the corner of Murray Road and the Old Durban Road, and was frequented by many.
Natal was not without its share of conflicts and wars in which the various garrison regiments had to protect the colony.
Each period of history has wars and threats of wars, but these do not define the progress of a country. Equally as important is the social history during that period.
This book covers the daily life of the people, the economy, politics, culture and spiritual areas that enhance and bring out the essence and life of historical events and periods.
Readers of MacCallum’s previous books will know that she writes about social history, a passion for which was fostered during a Grade 9 history lesson at her alma mater, Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School.
Up to that point she hated history as it was dates, politics and wars.
This changed when a student teacher introduced social history to the lesson.
The student teacher in question was Dr Sylvia Vietzen, who later became one of GHS’s principals. She brought her lesson on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to life when describing how people lived and dressed, their culture, etc.
MacCallum uses an analogy to explain social history. If you are walking along the beach, you see the crabs, shells and all the little creatures in the rock pools.
Then someone takes you diving out at sea, and you discover a totally new concept with corals, turtle and fish giving you a completely different idea of the sea. But if you put your two ideas together you get the true concept of the essence of the sea.
The same applies to history, which gives you politics, wars and dates, but these alone do not tell you the essence of the story. You must know about the lives of the people, the economy, etc., and only then do you get the true essence of history.
MacCallum, who studied history and psychology at Unisa, says research for her books is essential and this can take up to two years before she starts writing.
Most of the information is gleaned from books, diaries, almanacs, and newspapers which are housed in archives, libraries, and museums. She also interviews people at institutions, as well as individuals.
— Books Editor.
• Eavesdropping on Victorian Natal is available at Tea on 23, 23 Carbis Road, Pietermaritzburg, FactandFiction Bookstore (061 944 2905). And in Durban, contact Ike’s Books and Collectables at 48A Florida Road Windermere. Alternatively, e-mail carol.maccallum@ icloud.com
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