ABOUT US
Dunelm’s name and it’s people
Every farm has at least a family tree explaining its ancestry, if its not offering any advice about what the future has in store. Hidden behind the bare facts are usually some good stories to be found. Dunelm is no exception.
John George Dixon obtained the farm in 1903 from the then Orange River Colony. This native of North England probably took part in the Anglo Boer War and stayed on afterwards. He named his new farm after his home town, Durham, derived from the Old Norse “dun” for hill and “holrne” for home or island, with Dunelm as a Latin variation.
Dixon must have been quite homesick, as his great- granddaughter says many of his ideas hark back to buildings of his birth-place. Evidence abound in the layout of the old sandstone mansion and the engraved corner stone of the milk shed. Yes, the milk shed has a formal corner stone dated 1908!
His dream was short-lived, because he sold in 1918. Over the next 90 years the farm had 8 owners.
Three generations of the family Scheepers lived on the farm for 28 years from 1920. Grandpa Johannes died in the year he acquired the farm, but grandma Christina, who lived till 1934, farmed with her son Petrus, the heir.
The grandparents en 2 of Petrus’ children, who died young, were laid to rest in Dunelm’s fertile earth in beautifully preserved graves, but Petrus and the rest of his family left without leaving a trace.
The other owners, Messrs. Van Niekerk, Marais, Du Plessis and Van Blerk had the farm for longer or shorter periods, but Anton Engelbrecht ruled the roost for almost twenty years. Over the years the manor house was altered and added to, out-buildings were erected and life went its course. Now Dixon’s dream house is being restored to its former glory, the historic old milk shed is turning into a chapel and the new guest cottages are taking shape in a complimentary style. John Dixon will be proud of the new Dunelm in the Brandwater Basin, in a strange country far away from his beloved Durham
The Dunelm Memory Lane
The “King and Empire” Obelisk
In the veld of Dunelm stands a stirring monument in memory of a minor incident during the Anglo Boer War, as a reminder, if any is needed, of the senselessness of war in general and the sacrifices required of ordinary people in such times.
By July 1900 Bloemfontein and Pretoria were already in British hands. Small wonder the British believed the war to be over, whilst the Boer forces were very demoralized and in general disarray. In the Eastern Free State a very large British force trapped the Free State’s main army against sheer cliffs in the far comer of the Brandwater Basin’s horseshoe shaped amphitheater. Generals Prinsloo and Roux were despondent. Five of the six exits from the basin were closed, the sixth inaccessible. Resistance was futile, not so? General de Wet and president Steyn escaped the British stranglehold on 15 July 1900 with 1 800 men to continue the struggle elsewhere. The Free Staters surrendered on 29 July and had to lay down arms at Verliesfontein.
However, on 28 July 1900, the previous day, at the very last moment, a serious skirmish took place at Surrender Hill. At least seven British soldiers died and were laid to rest in a forlorn grave in Dunelm‘s veld. Their comrades and loved ones remembered them after the war and erected the sandstone obelisk at Dunelm, in memory of the men’s ultimate sacrifice for “King and Empire.” The sandstone eroded in time and in 1987 the National Monuments Commission added the granite tablet with the names of the deceased.
Dunelm is situated in the Brandwater Basin. Surrender Hill is in the immediate vicinity. Naauwpoort, the later Clarens, and Verliesfontein are also around here. What stories the veld can tell!
More facts and fiction of the dramatic events can be found in The Boer War by Thomas Pakenham, Op soek na generaal Mannetjies Mentz by Christoffel Coetzee, even Verliesfontein by Karel Schoeman.
Dunelm's permanent guests
Some known, others not
Should one take the time to pay a visit to Dunelm’s permanent guests, our country‘s human diversity will no doubt make a lasting impression, as evidenced in four graveyards.
Grandpa Johan Scheepers died at 49 in 1920, shortly after he bought the farm. His epitaph was carved in a kind of Dutch: “Kom tot my allen die vermoeid ‘n belas syn ‘n Ek sal u rust geven.” Granny Christina was 63 when she died in 1934, a year after the Bible had been translated in Afrikaans and her message was in keeping with the language of the time: “Elk–een wat lewe en in My glo, sal nooit sterwe tot in eeuwigheid nie,” In 1943
and 1944 the brother and sister convey great truths in both languages: “Veilig in Jesus arm ” and “Laat die kindertjies na my toe kom en verhinder hulle nie” Grandparents and grandchildren laid to rest by the generation in between.
A little further, over the hill, the time ravaged obelisk in memory of seven British soldiers reach for the sky. “Killed at the battle of Surrender Hill, July 28 1900.” The communal grave of corp. W O’Farrell, priv’s D Devereux, R Dervin, R Murray, J Steer, corp. W Hunt & priv. F Sheppard. Members of the Royal Irish Regiment, Leinster Regiment, Scots Guards & Wiltshire Regiment, they met their maker at this spot, “For King & Empire.”
At the foothills of the next ridge are a number of rough graves of erstwhile workers. It is interesting that the homemade headstones are “reversed” and are read from behind, instead of the front. The oldest grave is dated 1936 and the latest 1996. Here lies, forever, Betty Mokoena, Serame Petrus Mabe, Manini Seshorela, Mathola Mofokeng, Petrus Thabo, Sevanja Ne Mabe and others in unmarked graves. Danie Tshepiso’s attractive grave has a beautiful white cross and Manteke Mofokeng a granite headstone.
The overhanging cliff at the northern side of the farm had been home to San people for a very long time, as evidenced by the black soot on the walls and roof and the rock paintings, especially that of the holy eland bull. One can only speculate about the graves of these people, because they buried a member of the tribe “in good standing” as soon as possible, on his side in a sleeping position, in a shallow grave, with all his possessions. The graves were filled in to ground level and not marked in any way, not with stones, names or plinths. The whole of Dun elm is the graveyard of these people.
“We respect death and long to find meaning in it,” says Simon Sebag Montefiori in Jerusalem: The Biography. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
