Zulu Heritage

The town of Colenso and its larger neighbour, Ladysmith, and the area around them, have a rich historic and cultural heritage, with literally hundreds of historical sites, including stone age, iron age and early settler historical sites.

During the Anglo-Boer War, Ladysmith was the key point in the struggle for Natal. For 118 days the Boer forces besieged the town. The siege plunged Ladysmith into newspaper headlines worldwide. Water supplies and communication lines were cut, health conditions deteriorated, rapidly causing many deaths, mainly as a result of enteric fever and other diseases.

In 1855, Colenso was named after Bishop John William Colenso. Prior to this, the town was known as the Great Tugela Drift as it was a stopover point for the flourishing transport wagon trail between Durban, Johannesburg and the Free State. Colenso is also known as eSkipeni (Zulu for ‘Place of the Boat’).

Colenso was the scene of a battle, on 15 December 1899 , where the British Army suffered a humiliating defeat when they lost 10 of their 12 guns to the Boer forces. The Battle of Colenso was the first of five battles to relieve the besieged Ladysmith. A series of smaller battles, collectively known as the Battle of Tugela Heights, were fought a short distance from Colenso, towards Ladysmith. Here General Buller led his troops through numerous relief efforts. The battlefields can be seen on the Ezakheni/Newcastle road. They include Hart’s Hill, Wynne’s Hill and Pieters’ Hill.

Up until the Second World War, the Battle of Tugela Heights was possibly the biggest battle ever fought by the British Army and, until the Falklands War, it is said to have been the biggest battle fought in the southern hemisphere. The place where Winston Churchill was captured is only a short distance from Colenso.