‘Plaquing’ up courage to celebrate history
The plaques contain basic information on the building.
The area is rightly proud of its historical heritage.
Tourists, attracted by the various battlefields, bring in hundreds of thousands of Rands and the industry has created many valuable jobs.
Strangely, many locals are not as au faire with the area’s rich history as are the many visitors.
Tourism Dundee hopes to set this right by putting up plaques on various buildings of historical importance in both Dundee and Glencoe.
Norman Parkinson, Tourism Dundee chairman, said 47 buildings had already been identified. The plaques, designed by Pam McFadden of Talana Museum, are attractive yet made of chromadek, which makes them not very attractive to scrap metal thieves.
The plaques contain basic information on the building and there are also plans to put in a digitally enhanced code, which when scanned by a cellphone, will take the viewer to a website containing fuller details of the building.
Some of the buildings already identified include the Old Magistrate’s Building, St James Church, and the location of the infamous curfew bell on lower Victoria Street, the Hindu Temple and Mosque.
George Adalis of Charlie’s SuperSpar has agreed to sponsor the first 15 plaques. Anyone wanting to give input should contact Tourism Dundee at 034 21 22121 (ask for the tourism office).
