HUGH Bland has made a name for himself capturing the beauty of sometimes crumbling, grand heritage architecture, through his coffee table books The Trappist Missions ‒ KwaZulu-Natal's Forgotten Treasure and Addington Children's Hospital and Nursing Home.
Now, he has focused on New Beginnings: Repurposed Historic Homes of KwaZulu-Natal, keeping the architecture theme but with far less on ruins. It features 40 such establishments.
"It’s refreshing and nice to see places that are being maintained and restored and looked after, albeit in a different form," Bland told the Independent on Saturday of his project that started during last year's strict lockdown when he delved into his heritage site www.kznpr.co.za.
It’s one of the most comprehensive image-based records of the province and has more than 85 000 images that Bland has taken over the past 10 years.
"I had physically wandered across the country," said Bland, who added some post-lockdown trips to contribute further to the book that takes the reader from the battlefields of northern KZN to the South Coast.
In between, he tried out a new way of shooting the buildings he is so fond of, by joining his friend, sculptor Owen Llewellyn Davies, on a microlight over the Midlands.
"Shooting out of a little thing shaking in the air, it was hard to get a sharp image," he recalled.
"But I learnt after one trip that I must never lean against the frame of the aircraft when shooting. I also had to steady myself, get a faster shutter speed and up the ISO."
Eventually, Bland made a little card of tips about shooting from a microlight. He carried that with him.
The buildings are mostly used as bed and breakfasts, and museums, and many are recovering from having felt the pinch of the lockdowns.
Among the pictures in the book are archive shots and contributions from owners, like a shot of Dirk Froneman, owner of Lennox Guest House near Dundee, in action playing Springbok rugby with Morne du Plessis and Kevin Cowley. Also indirectly linked to the theme of rugby is a picture of the Lund children of Montrose Farm, near Howick, in the old Voortrekker-built house, now a museum. Also in the picture is Clare, the mother of former Springbok rugby captain Gary Teichmann, said Bland.
On the topic of farmers' offsprings, Bland stumbled across the interesting information at the Manor House in the Biggarsberg Valley that, in Afrikaans culture, the youngest irrespective of gender, inherits the farm.
"This is to ensure that the parents have someone to care for them."
Manor House was one of few Boer farms not to be razed by the British during the Anglo-Boer War because it was used by British forces who gave it its name.
"A story persists that a British soldier was shot in the house during the course of a card game and that the bloodstains were visible until recently, when they were sanded out."
Many of the buildings Bland features are within eyeshot of public roads: Caister Lodge, the Berea home of Benjamin Greenacre that has been a World War I convalescent home, a hotel and presently, a retirement home; 303 Florida Road in Durban which, along with 309, have been “meticulously restored to their original condition”; Florida Road, the stamping ground of revellers, was once an elephant path, hence the name of another of Durban’s architectural treasures, The Elephant House.
“They (elephants) found that the wooden verandah columns of the house provided a useful means to rid themselves of unwanted parasites, before they descended to the Umgeni to Zeekoe Lake to graze the verdant riverine bush,” writes Bland.
City people making their way up Florida Road had to divert up Montpelier Road to avoid the elephants, which were bent on using their ancient route. The house withstood the elephant visits and thus secured its name.
Heritage buildings in use as museums include those at the Gandhi and Phoenix Settlement; Greytown Museum where a large fig stands, planted by the sister of Louis Botha, a local farmer who was later to lead Boer forces in the Anglo-Boer War; and Muckleneuk on the Berea, which now houses the Killie Campbell Collections Library.
Phoenix, where Mahatma Gandhi had a home, also features in the book.
“The original farm that was known as Phoenix was owned by Thomas Watkins, a sugar cane grower. When his sugar cane was damaged by fire, he replanted in the ashes. A bumper crop resulted, inspiring him to name his farm Phoenix.”
Bland wants to get the message across that places that are not homes any more can be repurposed.
“What often happens is that when people don’t want to live in them, they get trashed and left to go derelict. Or they are redeveloped.
“If we want to retain a sense of this province for the future, we have got to look after these houses no matter what their past.
“Maybe this will encourage others to do the same.”
New Beginnings: Repurposed Historic Homes of KwaZulu-Natal by Hugh Bland sells for R700 and is available through [email protected]
The Independent on Saturday