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Peddie Secondary School
Peddie, Eastern Cape

Date:1920
Type:School
Status:Extant

 


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Coordinates:
33°11'56.84" S 27°06'45.20" E Alt: 328m

A well proportioned single storey school building with generous sized classrooms arranged in a u-shape around a west facing courtyard. The building is placed on axis with the approach road and entrance on the east side. The design was almost certainly the product of an architect employed by the Department of Public Works. Repeated recesses in the sides of some of the gable walls suggest that the school was originally planned to be extended.

A small foundation stone has an inscription (in English and in Dutch) with lead letters in a Roman font recessed into a fine grained white marble. The foundation stone is set into the external wall adjacent to the entrance on the southeast corner of the building and reads as follows:

THIS STONE
WAS LAID BY
SENATOR B. NILAND
ON THE 24 MAY 1920
-- . --
DEZE STEEN
WERD GELEGD DOOR
SENATOR B. NILAND
OP DE 24 MEI 1920

Senator Bernard (Bernie) Niland (1849-1934) farmed at Mount Prospect and Windsor in the Adelaide district of the Eastern Cape and was married to Maria 'Mimie' Johanna van der Meulen (1853-1929). He served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Fort Beaufort constituency - which included Adelaide, Alice, Bedford, Fort Beaufort, Keiskamma Hoek, Middledrift, Peddie and Seymour. Niland also represented the Cape Colony as a Senator in Parliament.

The Peddie Secondary School was in use by the Knight Marambana Commercial High School in October 2016. The buildings have unfortunately since been abandoned and vandalised and the roof, windows and doors have been removed.(November 2019).

Submitted by William Martinson, November 2019.