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Fort Brown
Fort Brown, Eastern Cape

John HARVEY: Architect

Date:1835
Type:Fort
Status:Extant

 


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Coordinates:
33°07'48.02" S 26°37'03.36" E Alt: 280m

Lt. Col. G. Lewis, the Commanding Officer of the Royal Engineers at the Cape, drew plans for fortified barracks at Hermanus Kraal. A young officer, William Jervois, was appointed to in 1841 to carry out the work. Hermanus Kraal was later renamed to Fort Brown after Lt Brown of the 75th Regiment who was in command during the war of 1835.

Fort Brown consisted of a group of buildings surrounded by a high stone wall. At the corner was a tower of about 3.5 meters for mounting a gun. Under the floor there was a power magazine and on the roof a cannon that could be swiveled round. After years of neglect this gun tower and a few walls are all that remained. It was declared a National Heritage Site in 1938.

(Lu-Gerda de Klerk)

All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.


Books that reference Fort Brown

Alberts, Paul. 1992. South African military buildings photographed : an historical heritage. Cape Town: The Gallery Press. pg 68
Coetzee, Colin. 1995. Forts of the Eastern Cape : Securing a frontier 1799 - 1878. Grahamstown: Colin G Coetzee. pg 22, 268-273, 306, 316, 639
Potgieter, DJ (Editor-in-chief). 1971. Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa [SESA] Volume 4 Dev-For. Cape Town: Nasou. pg 646