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THE EARLY HISTORY
[ Narrator - Peter Reece
- May 2005 ] Page
4
SOME LOCAL HISTORICAL LANDMARKS
Many of the historical features of Botha's
Hill can be seen without moving far
off the Old Main Rd running through
the village.
• Botha's
Halfway House: From Hillcrest,
down in the valley, Padley's Crossing
over the railway leads to West Riding,
part of the original Buffelsfontein
Farm. Botha's Halfway House was situated
just over the railway and an old oak
tree, at the site of the hotel there,
fell over in 1983. Part of the tree
is mounted outside the Hillcrest Library
and has some links of iron chain still
embedded in it, probably for tethering
horses or for helping to outspan oxen.
• The original wagon track
up Botha's Hill may be seen
above the entrance to Assagay Rd, just
past the Sugar Loaf Centre. The track
is impassable by vehicle but joins up
with Nquma Rd (off Botha Rd) at the
top of the hill. At present it is used
as a pedestrian short-cut to the top.
Another section of the track, on the
western side of Botha's Hill, can be
seen below Heidi's Farm Stall leading
down into Potgieter's valley. •
Clement Stott's home
was situated to the right of Warwickshire
Crescent, at the top of the hill, where
the Highfield Rest Home / Augustinian
Convent stands now. His son, Dr Halley
Stott's original home is now occupied
by Dalton Edwards today at 22 Chapel
Rd. Stott's huge library was donated
to Dalton and is maintained by him.
Dr Stott passed away in 2004. •
The site of the Zoo and Tea-garden
is just to the left of the present Kearsney
College gates. The original Kearsney
entrance was along Kearsney College
Rd a little further up. • The
original position of Roberts' Store
is the little chain of shops just beyond
the Total garage on the left. •
The original Botha's Hill Water
Company reservoir is situated
at the end of Ridge Rd (on the crest
opposite Roberts' Store) •
Heidi's Farm Stall,
on the descent towards the railway station,
was in existence in the mid-1940's as
a small wood-and-iron roadside stall
with a wooden hatch that was pulled
up at the end of the day's trading.
It was owned originally by Edgar and
Heidi Gevers and supplied with produce
from their farm in the valley below,
the original Hans Potgieter farm. Their
daughter, Rita, married Martin Heilgendorf
who now runs the farm and the stall.
There is a panoramic view of the Valley
of a Thousand Hills and the Inanda Dam
from the roadside at the stall.
• Immediately after Heidi's, and
1 Km down Clement Stott Rd
is the Chantecler Hotel,
built in the early 1940's in the belief,
possibly optimistically, that it could
host some of the overnight traffic on
the upcountry route. It had been rumoured
that a new National Road might pass
through the valley - not so, as it turned
out.
