Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Blood River Monument - Bronze Wagon Laager Dundee district, KwaZulu-Natal

Date: 1971 Type: Monument Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 28°06'19.75" S 30°32'26.39" E

See more photographs The Blood River Monument is a tribute to the battle of Blood River (1838), a focal point of the Afrikaners' cultural heritage. A Jaw Bone Wagon Monument was erected on the site of the battle in 1947, consisting of an ox wagon executed in granite by the sculptor Coert Steynberg. In 1971 a laager of 64 ox wagons cast in bronze (by Unifront Foundry in Edenvale - Fanie de Klerk and Jack Cowlard) was erected, and unveiled on 16 December 1972. (Blood River Heritage Site; Wikipedia) The monument is across the river from the Ncome Monument and Museum Complex, with the Reconciliation Bridge connecting them. Transcription of the English wording on the granite stone of the Bronze Wagon Laager: BRONZE WAGON LAAGER King Dingane's powerful Zulu army and a group of Voortrekkers men led by Andries Pretorius engaged in battle here on the banks of the Ncome River on December 1838. This became known as the battle of Blood River and according to historians this victory of the Voortrekkers influenced the course of South African history In the 1960s it was decided that the original laager of Andries Pretorius would be replicated as accurately as possible. Kobus Esterhuizen designed 64 life size bronzed steel wagons in a D-shape, that include whip barriers, lanterns and open ammunition wagons. Every wagon was modelled exactly like the Johanna van der Merwe centenary replica which took part in the 1938 Symbolic Ox-wagon trek. The wagons were cast by Universal Iron and Steel Foundaries and then sprayed with sand [sandblasted] to clean the surface. A coat of zink, followed by a coat of bronze was applied. This replica laager was unveiled on 16 December 1971 by the prime minister, B.J. Vorster. ________________________ Since the first photographs were taken in 2007 all the lanterns have disappeared. (Ed 2016) References: Swart, Marius J (ed). 1989. Afrikanerbakens. Johannesburg: Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge. pg 238 van Tonder, JJ. 1977. Fotobeeld van 300 Monumente, Standbeelde en Gedenktekens langs die pad van Suid-Afrika. Krugersdorp: JJ van Tonder. pg 45