TOPIC:

The Midlands area of Natal started to be settled by Europeans in the 1830s. The animals brought by the settlers proved attractive to the indigenous Zulu and San people who started to raid them. Between 1845 and 1872, approximately 2,287 cattle and 400 horses were stolen.

The 45th Regiment, Sherwood Foresters, completed the building of a fort in 1856 to put a stop to these raids. The location was named Nottingham Road.

During the Boer War, the Nottingham Road Rifle Association was raised here.

Nottingham Road from a sketch by the Bishop of Natal.

djb wrote: The location was named Nottingham Road.

Hi djb,
If I recall correctly, the fort is located in the town of Nottingham, about 30km West of Nottingham Road.

Nottingham Road is where the railway station was located due to a dispute between the Surveyor General and a prominent resident of the town of Nottingham.

Some more information about the fort and stables on the South African Military History Society website:
samilitaryhistory.org/jnl2/vol185ic.html

I spent some time researching the deployment of the 45th Regiment to Natal in the mid-19th Century. Below is a record of the founding of one of its outposts. I have other records of some of the men who served there, as well as records of Cape Mounted Riflemen who accompanied them.

Brett

The first military deployment at Fort Nottingham in the Natal Midlands

During May and June 1856 men from the 45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment were deployed to a place in the Natal Midlands that was named Nottingham in honour of their home county. It would later be renamed Fort Nottingham, although there never was a fort built on the site. It survives today as a hamlet near to the town of Nottingham Road.

The 45th Regiment’s detachment was accompanied by men of the Cape Mounted Rifles, a regiment that had been raised by the British in the Cape of Good Hope in 1828.

They were tasked with building a base from which the military could counter the stock theft from local farms carried out by the Bushmen (San) inhabiting the foothills of the Drakensberg.

The men deployed were:

Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Henry J Palmer (Cape Mounted Rifles, attached to 45th Regiment)

Other ranks were:
45th Regiment
Sergeant
1392 Patrick Quirk
Privates
3006 William Belsher
2458 Henry Conelly
1152 John Fish
2877 Samuel Glassy
2708 John Holmes
2850 James Lennen
2965 Patrick O’Neill
2716 Edwin Patrick
2371 Thomas Ryan
2129 Michael Spillane
3317 Thomas Wood

Cape Mounted Rifles
Privates
1406 Able Abel
480 Jacob Bartman
2020 John Berry
575 William Bird
2019 William Coffee
1378 Jager Conrad
1308 Floris David
2100 Robert Edwards
1404 Stoffle Edwards
1354 John Hans
2118 Robert Hodgson
2111 William Hodgson
1366 Hendrick Mattross
592 Peet Michaels
1304 Leopold Philip
2104 John Read
2122 James Reynolds
2108 Jaber Scholes
1403 Dolly Telemachus
1362 Cobus Tarrental

Very nice to hear from you, Brett, and many thank for this information.

It was a fleeting visit, David. Thank you for acknowledging it.
Son Michael and I at the Fort Nottingham Museum a few years ago. The Museum is in the partly restored stable/barracks, and is cared for by the daughter of the Museum's founder, who put Fort Nottingham back on Natal's tourism map.
Regards
Brett