FEW residents know that Westville has a cemetery.
This is not that surprising since it is not visible from the road, nor is it signposted.
Situated just off Norfolk Terrace in Glenridge Road, the cemetery is today marooned within the municipality’s Roads and Storm-water Maintenance depot.
Despite being surrounded by the depot, with security at the entrance, many graves have been vandalised.
The extent of the litter and neglect is astonishing. Trees have taken root within the graves and overgrown bush obscure many graves.
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Long-time residents recall that when Westville was still an independent borough, the cemetery was well-maintained.
A local cemetery is a repository of a town’s past.
Among the surviving Norfolk Pines (from which Norfolk Terrace takes its name) are the graves of some of Westville’s earliest families.
The pocket of land on which the cemetery lies was donated by the Lange family in the 19th century.
Like many other German families, they had arrived in Durban in 1848 as part of an immigration scheme proposed by Jonas Bergtheil.
He resolved to bring workers to Westville to grow cotton on a large scale.
Although this venture failed, the German settlers remained.
British families in Westville
As the former ‘Natal’ was a British colony, British families, drawn to the climate, also settled in Westville.
One of the earliest graves is that of Walter Newton Smith who died in September 1888 aged 16.
The Williams family had arrived in South Africa in 1863, later settling on a farm in Westville.
Williams Road is named after them. For years they were part of local folklore and, until her dying day in 1899,
Emma Williams believed that diamonds would be discovered on her farm.
She ceded her shares in her Isisa Mining Company to her son Percival, who gave permission to an Australian prospector to dig on the farm in 1907.
Percival claimed diamonds and rubies were discovered, but this was never actually substantiated.
Not long before she died in 1959 aged 89, Percival’s widow, Mary, was still claiming that diamonds had been discovered in 1907.
Three generations of the Williams family were buried in the cemetery between 1889 and 1962. By the time of Mary’s death, only 10 acres of the original farm were still owned by the family.
Barely visible tombstones
Thomas and Sarah Huntly settled in Westville in 1869 in the Northcliff/Jan Hofmeyr Road area, raising 10 children.
This area was rather convenient for Thomas as he was a coach driver and Jan Hofmeyr Road was part of the old main road to Pietermaritzburg.
The Outspan Tree (which was in Jan Hofmeyr Road) was only a couple of hundred metres further up the road. One of their children, Alfred, had a hair-raising escape when a python almost suffocated him to death. Fortunately Thomas managed to free his son. The python’s skin was on display at a store in Durban for years.
Graves of the Huntly family are in the cemetery, but Sarah’s is in danger of toppling over. The last family member to be buried there was Violet who died in 1957. A road is also named after them.
Other prominent figures found there include Teddy Browne, mayor of Westville on 12 occasions and a driving force behind the town’s civic development.
One of his predecessors before Westville became a borough in 1956, was Jack Martens.
Both Jack and his wife May are buried in the cemetery, but their tombstones are barely visible among the fallen branches.
The Martens’s home is still owned by the family.
Bergtheil’s house in Queens Avenue is today a museum. This small cemetery is equally deserving of protection and basic maintenance.
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