TOPIC:

What's the connection? I wish I knew but I fear we'll never know.

As I was going to be in the area I was looking at a map and spotted the name 'Spion Kop Lane.' Couldn't find anything historical about it online but went to have a look while nearby. I was able to visit the church and found a group of locals there but none of them knew the reason for the name. However, I was able to get hold of a copy of a local history book and from that can say that there was a Spion Kop Farm (now gone), and that the farm and the cottages in the lane were believed to have been owned during WW2 by one Arthur Hempsall. There doesn't seem to be any local memory further back than that.

So why was Spion Kop Farm so named? Certainly not through the lie of the land as this is in southern Lincolnshire, a few miles south-west of Boston - very flat (unless it was named as a joke?). Did the owner in the early 1900s have a relative who was killed at Spion Kop and so named the farm as a memorial to him? Is it possible that the name predates the ABW?

Very unlikely that it bore that name before 1900, a terrace at Liverpool's old ground was named "The Kop" as a direct result of the battle, this could certainly be similar, or indeed, rather more personal, as you suggest.

Berenice and Frank and any others interested
I have been aware of two locations (at least) in NSW bearing the name SPION KOP. One is relatively close to the small coastal town of WoyWoy and the location has its own postcode (2327). It is said to bear a close resemblance to the actual battlefield site. It is easily visible from the location of one of my former employer's speed camera sites and I have many times passed it on the way to and from the local Court. When my new PC system comes on-line I will post a pic of it.
There is another Spion Kop in Heathcote National Park, NSW. Not at all well known and I understand difficult to access. The first military wireless transmissions in OZ were made from about that location in c.1907.
No idea, of course, of who named either site - save that it was either someone who was at or near the battle itself or saw images of it.
Regards
IL.

Hello Everyone.....

Here is a location in Canada..... From the tourist write-up on line......

Mike

SPION KOP TRAIL

You find vestiges of empire in the strangest places. As a huge history buff, I’m all in favour of names that relate to the heritage of an area, be they aboriginal or settler. But I was left scratching my head just a little over the origins of a landmark familiar to Lake Country residents and anybody else who regularly drives Hwy 97 between Kelowna and Vernon.

Although you may not know the name, you’d instantly recognize the triangular peak, topped by a microwave tower, that rises between Okanagan and Wood lakes just north of old Winfield. It’s called Spion Kop (spee´-on cop), a name that comes from the Dutch for “spy hill,” which is where the imperial connection comes in. Thee original Spion Kop is a hill in South Africa near the city of Emnambithi-Ladysmith, northwest of Durban. It was the site of a bloody and futile Boer War battle waged in 1900, one of those pointless engagements where men on both sides die for nothing as the British snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, abandoning their gains to the astonished Boers. Hardly the sort of glorious event you’d expect to be commemorated, yet the name crops up in countries all over the Commonwealth. Our Spion Kop, which bears a certain resemblance to its South African cousin, was likely named by Boer War veteran and Okanagan settler Leslie Caesar.

From: Find My Past

First name(s) John Arthur Leslie
Last name Caesar
Service number(s) 12474
Rank: Lance-Corporal
Regiment Imperial Yeomanry
Literary references The National Archives WO128. Imperial Yeomanry, Soldiers' Documents, South African War.
Notes The Queen's South Africa (QSA) Medal Clasps: Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Rhodesia, South Africa 1901
Unit: 67 Imperial Yeomanry Company (Sharpshooters), Rank: Lance-Corporal, Number: 12474

A small point ......... 'Spion Kop' is correctly 'Spioen Kop', and it is pronounced 'spee-oon'. I do not know how to indicate the correct pronunciation of 'Kop', but the anglicised 'cop' is incorrect.
Brett

When did Spion Kop become "Spioen" Kop? certainly not in 1900!