The earliest identifiable inhabitants of the Estcourt area were the
San, a hunter-gather people, though rock engravings dating from four different
Iron Age periods have been found on the farm
Hattingsvlakte. The San had been displaced by the
Bantu people, a pastoral people and in particular the
Zulu, a tribe that traced its origins as a separate nation to the early eighteenth century. The San had sought sanctuary in the foothills of the Drakensberg. In the early nineteenth century the Zulu king
Shaka used the
Mfecane to build his empire, which led to a depopulation of the area. Thus, when the white settlers first arrived in the Estcourt area, the land appeared to be almost uninhabited.
The first settlers The first recorded settlement in the Estcourt area was in 1838 when a group of
Voortrekkers encamped on the banks of the Bushmans River in anticipation of securing land right from
Dingane kaSenzangakhona, the Zulu king. The negotiator,
Piet Retief, and his party were murdered by Dingane on 6 February 1838 and on 17 February attacks, since known as the
Weenen massacre, were launched on the Voortrekker encampments along the Bloukrans River, the
Bushmans River and the Mooi River. After a Voortrekker retaliation at the
Battle of Blood River, Dingane was deposed and his place taken by
Mpande. Mpande seceded the land south of the Tugela River to the settlers which included the area that was to become Estcourt. The Voortrekkers set up the
Natalia Republic, but after the
Battle of Congella in 1842, they abandoned their settlements and moved into the interior, leaving Natalia to the British who established the
Colony of Natal. Thus Natal acquired an English-speaking rather than an
Afrikaans-speaking settler community and Estcourt, being so close to the Tugela River become a frontier outpost. In 1847 Clem Heeley was the owner of an inn and trading store at a ford on the
Bushman's River. On 4 December that year a military post known as Bushman's River Post was established on a hill dominating the ford, whilst at the same time a village known as Bushman's River was established across the river. On 4 January 1848 the Surveyor General recommended that the seat for the new magisterial district of Impofane be located at Bushmans River Drift. Initially the recommendation was ignored and the magistracy was located at
Weenen, some 30 km away but in 1859, with the growing importance of Estcourt, the seat was moved there.
The Byrne settlers and the name "Estcourt" The settler community was further strengthened by the arrival of the Byrne Settlers - English immigrants whose settlement in the Colony was sponsored by
Thomas Estcourt, a
North Wiltshire,
MP. In 1946 there appears have been conflicting suggestions of why the town was called "Estcourt" - one body of opinion favouring the view that the town was named after Captain Estcourt, a member of the party who established the military outpost in 1847 and the other favouring the view that the town was named after Thomas Estcourt MP in 1863. Pearce, The fort became a substantial stronghold, and was used to protect transport riders and the herds of cattle driven across the ford. It is as secure as any castle with drinking water tanks in the basement, a drawbridge, moat and two secret tunnels. The confirmation of large deposits of coal in the
Dundee area in 1880, some 100 km north of Estcourt led to the building of a railway line to link the coalfields with Durban. In 1885 the railway reached Estcourt and a bridge that is still in use today was built across the Bushman's River. The completion of the line to the coalfields the following year provided Estcourt with a good communications link to the coast. The mission station itself had been opened in 1892 - the second
Augustinian Sisters establishment in Natal staffed mainly by French-speaking nuns from Canada and France. The mission had a school, sanatorium and a chapel for the
Roman Catholic families in the town. The sanatorium was well used during the period when the railway line was being constructed and during the Boer War. Due to an
economic depression after the war the school was unable to survive and the sanatorium had to complete with a nursing home that was run by one of the two doctors in the town. Changing attitudes after
Vatican II and the opening of hospitals run by the Provincial Departments contributed to the order closing its mission and the sanatorium in Estcourt in the late 1960s.
Second Boer War When the
Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899, the Boer forces had 21,000 men ready to invade the Colony of Natal. Ranged against them, the British had 13,000 men. The Boers under the command of
General Petrus Joubert crossed the border into the Natal Colony and rapidly advanced to the Tugela river, laying siege to
Ladysmith, some 40 km north of the river and entrapping some 8,000 British regulars. Estcourt effectively became the front After another raiding party was surprised on 23 November at
Willow Grange, 10 km to the south of Estcourt, the Boers withdrew to a position behind the Tugela River. British reinforcements arrived and once Ladysmith was relieved on 1 March 1900, formal Boer opposition melted away and the colony was secured. ==20th century==