Durban - Of all the photographs of old Durban, this one showing three young children with their goats captivated me most with its charm, its air of innocence and the combination of both simple pleasure and responsibility, writes correspondent Mark Levin.
Photographed in Feniscowles Road in 1923, the rural scene really captures this part of Umbilo in the years just after World War 1. As farms were being subdivided, dirt roads were cut through them and the adjoining Stella bush, enabling the first houses to be built in the growing suburb.
A 1901 map of Durban shows the farm ‘Feniscowles’, which was named after the village Feniscowles in Lancashire. The spelling with one ‘n’ is the correct spelling. Owned by Mr and Mrs (later Sir John and Lady Eliza) Feilden, the farm was ‘a long way out of Durban’ when they began farming there in 1852. Feilden Road is named after the family.
In her memoir, My African Home, Eliza Feilden wrote about a ball in Durban which she and her husband attended in 1853. Being so far away, they booked a bedroom in town in which to eat and sleep. A servant took a portmanteau with their clothes and went on ahead. The Feildens had a quick beef sandwich before leaving on horseback. Her husband carried her jewellery and personal ornaments in a flat basket slung over his shoulder.
In 1910, there was a single vacant house in Feniscowles Road. When this picture was taken in 1923, there were three houses, but only two were occupied.
There were two businesses, Natal Mill and Elevator Company and Safco Ltd, which occupied the building on the right as Umbilo Road runs across the lower end of Feniscowles Road.
The recent photo, taken from Bartle Road, has Buxton Gardens on the left and Umbilo Road at the lower end because it is no longer possible to access this part of Feniscowles Road from Umbilo Road.
Feniscowles ends in a cul-de-sac. Seated on his bicycle is Daniel Phiri, who works at No 94 Feniscowles Road.
Safco, on the business end of the road, developed rapidly. In 1926 it built the largest reinforced concrete warehouse in Natal, with three railway sidings in the warehouse itself. Bones from all over South Africa were delivered to Safco in railway trucks. Specially selected bones were sterilised and turned into bone meal, while the fat was used to make soap and candles. The remaining bones formed the basis of the company’s fertilisers. By the 1930s, the factory occupied 14.2 hectares and employed 200 people.
The premises were later taken over by SA Breweries.