Diary

Graham Read in a post mentioned the name William Hartley School in Hopelands Road Overport.  Hopelands Road is at the crest of the Overport Ridge and runs behind the ridge past the back of Parklands Hospital.  I have come across the name William Hartley quite often in the books I have read about Durban that I thought a summary of some his endeavours would be interesting. There is no doubt that William Hartley was a go getter and in today’s parlance he would surely have been called an entrepreneur.

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I have recently bought a book called “Taking Stock – The Natal Education Department Looks Back”. The book was written by Simon Haw published by The Natal Education Department  in 1995. This  interesting book covers the period from when the Natal Education Department was founded in June 1894 and its demise with the advent of the new democratic dispensation in South Africa in 1994/1995.

Haw looks at education in Natal from its earliest years circa 1849 up to the time when the last Director of Education Mr. A.B. Olmesdahl finally handed matters over to the newly formed Kwazulzu-Natal Education Department.

I am not going to go into the contents but would like to extract from a list given at the back of the book, detailing most of the schools in Natal which were in operation at the time the book was written.  I am listing only the Durban schools that are listed.  The list is stated to be “not exhaustive” and I  could not find Mansfield High School for instance so obviously by the year the list was compiled Mansfield had closed its  doors.  My old school St Henry’s,  as well as some of the Convent schools are also not listed although other private schools are.

As mentioned in the above paragraph only the schools that were operative at the time when the book was written, i.e. 1995 were listed in the book. I did not include schools outside the Durban area as this forum is aimed at Facts about Durban. If you do list well known schools such as Mansfield, Mitchell High etc it would be interesting to note when those schools closed down just for the record as well as any other information you may know of. It all adds to the story. As there is quite a bit of information now gathered on this site, it is well to know that if you use the SEARCH facility you will be directed to references which may be hidden in other postings which are not strictly related to what you are looking for.  Edited: Gerald Buttigieg.

For interest,  I am listing the ten oldest schools in Natal that were still functioning when the list was compiled and there after  the Durban schools list is in founding date order. Private indicated the schools were independent of the NED.  In italics I have added my own comments.

Natal oldest schools : The top 10: Read More