#50YearsAgo Isipingo – rich in history (part one)

ISIPINGO as we know it today was once two villages, Isipingo Beach, the village on the beach front, and Isipingo Rail, the village near the railway siding. The indenture system was used from 1860 to supply cheap Indian labour to the sugar cane farms in Isipingo and the surrounding areas.

The system was stopped in 1911, but many people stayed rather than return to the poverty of their home country. Isipingo Beach and Isipingo Rail were separated by a two mile road known as “The Avenue”, now called “Avenue East”.

“The Avenue” was lined by three rows of trees. One row on the Durban side, one, on the south side and a row separating the road from the old tram line. The tram line was built from the Isipingo Rail Station to the village of Isipingo Beach.

There were no cars or electricity then and the tram would be pulled by horses or mules. Mr Olaf Bjorseth would often be seen at the helm, urging the horses on with his whip.

In 1900 Isipingo Beach was a small British village with a church, a mission school, two inns and two shops. The Isipingo Beach Golf Club opened in March, 1916.

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Todd’s Kindergarten School was opened prior to 1920. The school was run by Miss Todd and closed when Isipingo Beach Primary started, in the 1920s, admitting pupils for classes one and two.

lsipingo Beach Primary School began in the 1920s. Jock Kirby was the first headmaster, with Miss Tease taking the kindergarten; the Afrikaans teacher, Miss Boschoff , Miss Russell, Miss Stowe and Miss Goble. Mr Kirby taught standard five and six and was not able to teach a history lesson without telling his pupils of his experiences at the siege of Ladysmith and his having to eat horse meat to stay alive.

The Platt children of “Prospecton” farm attended Isipingo Primary, as did Georgina and Daff ney Ogle the of Reunion Sugar Estate.

Mrs Ogle was feared by the local children as she kept two pet pythons in a cage inside her house. The King children and Pellews came from Isipingo rail to attend Isipingo Beach Primary.

Also in Isipingo Beach was the Isipingo Beach Preparatory School, a private school started in the 1920s. The school was owned and run by Mr JE Ferrar. His daughter “Tim” was the only girl allowed to attend the school. Isipingo Beach Preparatory School closed in 1942.

The School of Recovery was run in Isipingo Beach providing holidays for underprivileged children. Every three months a group of about 50 girls or boys would arrive by train and stay at the school above Mackenzie Bay. There were also two private boarding houses above the bay.

The Glen Erin Hotel was run by Mrs De Barcay and her daughters. The other boarding house was the Ozone Hotel. Mrs Finney owned the Island View Hotel. She was a wealthy widow, presumably having won the sweepstakes. She married Mr Ice. Mr Ward decided to build a motor bridge to the hotel, which was on a small island in the lagoon.

He refused the advice of locals, who said that he would be building on mud silt. The bridge ran from River Mouth Road to the island. Mr Ward had about three trips over his newly built bridge before it collapsed.

The Isipingo Beach swimming pool was built in the early 1920s. It was not very deep and a visitor from Johannesburg decided he deepen it by dynamiting the bottom. He did not deepen it, but cracked it so that the pool could never hold water again.

The first policeman to patrol the beach was Sgt Lamb, a popular old English army type, who patrolled on horseback. Mr Bell was the station master and Miss Duncan the post mistress. In the early days, Isipingo was regularly ravaged by floods.

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It was not an unusual site during these times to see small home-made boats negotiating the roads and snakes climbing the walls of houses to avoid drowning. In 1927, the residents of Isipingo Beach were fore-warned of a “wall of water” that was rapidly making its way down the Umlaas River as a result of torrential rains.

The wall of water left dead donkeys, cows and other debris over a foot high along the beach. In 1935 four days of torrential rain left the area from Umbogintwini to Merebank like a lake.

As in previous floods, the Isipingo Beach bus service became a boat service, negotiating the shallow water along its route. It was at such a time that the bus floated off the route and sank somewhere in the mangroves.  

DID YOU KNOW?

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