1820 Settlers Traditional Geocache

The 1820 Settlers left their mark across the Grahamstown district, from naming places after their old homes, to architecture and even to traditional British pass times. 



This statue by Ivan Mitford-Barberton was erected in 1969 as a tribute to the 1820 Settlers.  Mitford-Barberton was himself descended from the Settlers.

After the Napoleonic wars ended many people in England were faced with unemployment.  This problem was exacerbated by the Industrial Revolution, creating a large workforce with nothing to do.  Lord Somerset, the govenor of the Cape Colony struck up an idea to stabilize the frontier with the Xhosa by settling farmers along the Fish River and throughout the Albany District. 

4000 people left England to start new lives, but discovered that farming in the Eastern Cape was not what they had expected.  They moved into the towns in the area and went back to the occupations that they knew.  Grahamstown filled with people and for a time was the second largest town in South Africa, only Cape Town was bigger.  One of the quirks of the return of people to the towns was that Grahamstown had three harp manufacturers at one stage.  Seems unbeleivable when you look a the town today!

 

FTF goes to Bremar Josrut, Logged during the Lets Cache Grahamstown event