Origins of road names in Woodlands and Montclair – part 1

ALAMEIN Road: Named after the decisive battle waged at El Alamein in Egypt in October 1942 in which South African troops featured with distinction.

Allandale Road: No trace.

Alphen Road: Possibly linked to a Cape wine estate or to Hieronymus van Alphen who featured in a Dutch newspaper produced in Port Natal during 1839 to 1840.

Anleno Road: No trace.

Arne Crescent: Named after a village in Dorset, eleven miles from Bournemouth.

Atherstone Road: Named after an 1820 settler, Dr John Atherstone, who was a noted naturalist and lived in Grahamstown. He died in 1855.

Bale Avenue: Named after Sir Henry Bale (1854 to 1910), a lawyer by profession who served as attorney-general in the late 1890s in Natal and later as chief justice.

Bangay Road: Named after a prominent family who lived in Montclair a century ago.

Bathgate Road: Named after a town in Scotland.

Bathurst Road: Name of the village at which Dick King called in June 1842 before proceeding to the British garrison at Grahamstown to summon help for the beleaguered British forces at Port Natal.

Behr Place: Named after Sydney Adolph Behr who served on the Durban Town Council in 1898 but who had a somewhat chequered history, having been declared insolvent in 1885.

Benson Road: Named after the Christian name of one of the Wood family who owned and developed property in the Montclair area.

Bertram Place: Possibly named after Dixon Bertram, an emigrant settler of 1850.

Blamey Road: Named after JR Blamey who had a farm at Clairmont during the last years of the Natal colonial period.

Boniface Avenue: Charles Etienne Boniface, a native of France, was the renegade editor of the first newspaper ever produced in Natal – Die Natalier – in 1844. Forced to close the paper because of libelous comments he made, Boniface started the Natal Patriot. He committed suicide in December 1853.

Bredell Place: Carl Bredell was a member of the Durban Town Council between 1884 and 1885. He died in 1887.

Buller Road: Britain’s fortunes in the initial stage of the Anglo-Boer War suffered severe setbacks under General Sir Redvers.

Buller when the Boers inflicted defeats on him at Colenso, Spion Kop and Vaalkrantz before he managed to break the siege of Ladysmith on 27 February 1900.