Bridge and Camp
The town of Norvalspont was a key area of battle during the Anglo-Boer war in the late 1800s. Boer commandos occupied the territory in 1899 and successfully invaded the Cape Colony soon after.
The rail transport bridge was the stand-off point between the Boers and the British, and it was eventually blown up to prevent any attacks. A British engineer then constructed a pontoon bridge, which would allow several soldiers on foot and horseback across the river into the Orange Free State. By the end of 1900, a temporary railway bridge was constructed where the modern day bridge now stands.
In 1900, the Norvalspont concentration camp was erected by the British in order to relieve the overcrowded Bloemfontein camp with its dire shortage of water. It was meant to hold Afrikaner women and children as prisoners while the Boer men fought in the war.
The first superintendents, both military men - Lieutenant Wynne of the Imperial Yeomanry was described as the ‘Father of the Camp’ and he was succeeded in January 1901 by Major du Plat Taylor of the Grenadier Guards, who instilled ‘firm military discipline’. At the end of February 1901, when the camp passed into civilian control Cole Bowen was appointed.
By 1901, about 400 prisoners of war were jailed here. Later that year, people from local tribes were also imprisoned, and the camp grew to 3 000 residents in 1902. Around 420 people died of measles or malnutrition during their time in the concentration camp.
After the war ended, a memorial was erected in the local cemetery in honour of those who died in the camp. It can still be visited today, and is a somber reminder of South Africa’s turbulent early history.