Mooi River ( Zulu : eMpafana , Afrikaans : Mooirivier ) is a small town situated at 1,389 m above sea level and 160 km from the coast in KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa . The first European settlement in the area was at Mooi River Drift in 1852. This was formally named Weston in 1866 after the first Governor of Natal , Martin West .
8-609: Nottingham Road is a town 19 km south of Mooi River and 59 km north-west of Pietermaritzburg on the R103 road in South Africa. Founded in 1905 and named after the Nottingham Regiment which was stationed there when trouble was expected from the Basotho in the 19th century. A popular trout-fishing area. Settlers from Scotland settled the area in the mid-19th century. At
16-524: A local library. The hall is used for the Association's meetings and also rented out for other functions. In 1866, the first sheep were brought from Cape Colony via a thousand-mile overland journey. Livestock theft by local San people led to the 1869 Reprisal launched from Fort Nottingham. The campaign, which established the boundaries in the settlers' favor, was commemorated in some of the final San rock art . This KwaZulu-Natal location article
24-727: A rural center. A small hotel and store were established where George Nicol's smithy would later be (now the location of the Mount West liquor store). In 1889, George Orwin bought the land where the Railway Hotel (today known as the Nottingham Road Hotel) would be built by C. Morgan and finished in 1891. In April 1884, John King donated the grounds where a small wood and iron Presbyterian church known as St. John's Gowrie would be built, and it opened in February 1885. A memorial to those from
32-560: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mooi River (town) In 1879, an Irishman named Alexander Lawrence purchased the Grantleigh farm upstream from Weston, on the banks of the Mooi River . Mooirivier is Afrikaans for "pretty river". In 1884, the railway line from Durban on the coast, to Johannesburg in the interior, reached the area and was built across Alexander Lawrence's land. He subsequently laid out and established
40-587: The N3 at Mooi River. Six schools are serving the Mooi River municipal area with numerous others further from town that serve the traditional farm labourer communities. The six main schools are: The urban economy of the area is currently based primarily on retail entrepreneurship, tourism and supporting the local agricultural community. Previously, the backbone of the urban economy had been Mooi River Textiles which finally closed in 2002 after years of downsizing. The decline of
48-658: The area who lost their lives in World War I opened on the church grounds near the entrance on 26 January 1992. The Nottingham Road Farmers' Association, one of the oldest agricultural societies in South Africa , was founded on 26 October 1887 by 11 prominent local citizens in the Railway Hotel. Their meeting hall, a longtime project, opened in December 1933. Today, it hosts the Notthingham Road Landowners' Association and
56-407: The end of 1885, the railway reached where the town now lies, before which the area was named after the contractor Harrison's Camp. For two years, it was known as Karkloof Station, but since Karkloof and the nearby Karkloof Forest were far away and nobody from there used the station, it was renamed Nottingham Road Station after Fort Nottingham down the road. The station started developing the area as
64-443: The village of Lawrenceville on his farm, Grantleigh, and so is known as "The Father of Mooi River". In 1921, the village was renamed Mooi River when it was declared a town. It lies on the N3 national road and rail routes between Johannesburg and Durban . Although the railway station is no longer used for passengers, goods are still being handled there. There is a toll plaza located on
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