More from my recent travels (which were a bit of a busman's holiday): Pilgrim's Rest, a historic gold rush town in #Mpumalanga from the 1870s. Architecture of tin buildings with wide verandas is largely unchanged as the rush quickly fizzled out.
#mininghistory
The town is a bit Disneyfied, but it's still worth a visit. This is the Highwayman's Garage, opened up by a former digger who returned to the town after serving time in prison for unsuccessfully holding up a gold delivery.
The outline of the old diggings are still visible outside the town.
#mininghistory
Most interesting though was the town's old cemetery. From the names on the grave stones, it appeared to be a whites-only cemetery. Principles of racial segregation was upheld in a fairly lawless mining town, even in death.
It includes an unnamed 'Robber's Grave', with the grave laid perpendicular to the rest of the graves, which all face the rising sun.
There was also a small separate section of Jewish graves enclosed within the cemetery.
Many, perhaps most, of the graves which mentioned a birthplace were for diggers who had been born in Wales. Some of the inscriptions were actually in Welsh, not a common sight in South Africa.
#mininghistory
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