Mansfield update
posted in: Mini Memories
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I have received a reply to a question posed a couple of posts ago about memorials to Mansfield High School pupils who died in the two world wars. Click to view the post and the response.
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Postcards
My informant Stan Winterburn has sent in these fine vintage postcards from his grandfather’s collection. It turns out his grandfather is the policeman featured in the Gardiner Street scene.
[nggallery id=4]
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School Badges
posted in: Mini Memories, Pictures
9
Clive Herron’s post regarding Mansfield High School had me wondering about the school badge detail. I remember the school wore a green blazer and the seniors wore grey longs and black shoes. I also recall their main rugby field was very hard, having experienced it personally. Regarding the badge, I looked amongst my meagre resources and came across this which shows the 20 oldest Natal schools. Of those I know of 5 which no longer exist, St Agnes, St Joseph’s, Mitchell Girls High, Oakford Priory, and Mansfield. Interesting to see which are the oldest schools. These pictures come from a 1969 brochure marking Payne Brothers Centenary.
Click on badges and picture will enlarge.
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Beachfront memories
I recently received a treasure trove of pictures from my informant Trevor Friend. I have put up a page of some of them, which were taken on the beachfront in 1964 and 1964.
The main Beachfront & Entertainment page is here.
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Bayside views
My informant Allan Hannah has sent in some great pictures of Durban Bay from sometime in the 1960s. Putting up his pictures allows me the chance to give a new piece of technology (NextGen picture gallery for WordPress)- a trial.
How to use NextGen: Click a picture to enlarge it and use the arrow buttons to scroll through the other ones. Click an enlarged picture to shrink it.
Why not leave a comment telling me what you think of the gallery concept?
[nggallery id=3] Share this: What they ate
posted in: Mini Memories
1
My regular informant William Paterson remembers a special treat on the occasion of his parents’ wedding anniversary in 1947. They ate at the Playhouse and here’s the menu to prove it.
Mansfield High
posted in: InfoRequests, Mini Memories
86
My informant Clive Herron wrote in recently about Mansfield High School, and some missing memorials. He had this to say:
Hi Alan
Great Website!This year would have been the 100th of Mansfield High School, now incorporated into the Steve Biko Campus of the Durban Institute of Technology. Mansfield in it’s own way turned out many outstanding citizens, among whom are business leaders, councillors, sportsmen. The school was noted throughout Natal for it’s shooting team under Mr Valentine. Music Master, geography teacher and Durban Historian Gilbert Russell (Bugs to the pupils) was awarded Civic Honours (1972) after being proposed and seconded by 2 Durban City Councillors Pieter Breytenbach and myself Clive Herron (both ex Mansfield).
It was indeed a sad occasion when a decision was taken to close the school. I am keen to find out what happened to the 2 memorials (lives lost in the 1st and 2nd world wars) that were hanging in the school hall. Rumour has it that these were stored at the RDLI now DLI but I have been unable to confirm this. It would be fitting if they could be erected in some visible place. I would suggest St Thomas’ Church in Musgrave Road, where Principal Mr Newton Parry was a lay minister for many years.
CLIVE HERRON
It would be great to get those memorials back, as Clive says, and to put them on display. Contact me here if you know anything about them.
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Cosmo Chat
posted in: Mini Memories
4
This is the Cosmo Club as it is today. In the 1960s it was set back quite considerably but as you can see it now borders Umgeni Road. I incorrectly said Soldiers Way in my first comment in that Old Fort Road bisects the two with Umgeni Road on the one side and Soldiers Way on the other. I cannot recall Bill Paterson’s note about a “Jesus Red” or its English equivalent “Jesus Saves” sign on the plot he mentions. However The Cosmo Club if I recall had a rounded appearance at the front but I may be wrong. As you can see it has been recently renovated and appears to be used as some sort of accommodation. The narrow upstairs windows I would say are original as those I do recall.
[Some earlier discussion about the Cosmo Nightclub took place here and here. Ed.] Share this:
Water for settlers
posted in: New Articles
0
I am very grateful to my informant Roger Ingle who was kind enough to obtain permission for me to re-publish Dr Tim Francis’ authoritative article on Durban’s early water holes, and the quality of water that was obtained from them. The article was originally published in the journal Natalia (V21: 1991).
I have put up a page with the text of the article and there is also a PDF of the original article, complete with illustrations, available for download.
*** Please note that the text was scanned from the PDF using optical character recognition (OCR). I have taken reasonable care but the process isn’t fool-proof and there may still be errors lurking in there somewhere. If you’re going to quote from the article, I’d also check the PDF, if I were you.
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