Fouriesburg

A small Town in the Eastern Free State, close to the Border to Lesotho. The start of the Town was made by a number of enterprising inhabitants who felt that a Town and a Church are needed. The Farm: 'Groenfontein', was bought from: 'Christoffel Gerhardus Fourie', for £5000. A surveyor was then called, to measure out the future Town. That was at the beginning of 1891, the first stand was sold on the 6 October 1891 for £2750. All this happened without Government approval, that only came on 1 June 1893 when the Volksraad (parliament) proclaimed the Town after being informed that the new Town had already been established.

Building of a Church commenced at the same time. The people of the Area were mostly part of the Ficksburg Congregation. They collected money so that a small Church could be build. A tender to build it for £ 2000 was accepted. The Church Council in Ficksburg only became aware of this after the event. The corner stone for the Church was laid on 31 December 1892. The congregation separated from Ficksburg in 1894. The first preacher was Michiel Heyns who served the congregation from 1894 to 1906. He had to retire because of ill health and died 1907. His remains are buried at the local cemetery. The clockwork was supplied by E. Burmester from Cape Town, 1909. These clockworks are also found in other Churches like: Bethlehem and Vrede. This new Congregation is not the Anglican Church any more, it is called the United Church of Fouriesberg. This is a multi denominational Church of English speakers, they do get preachers from different religions: Anglican; Methodist and Catholic to conduct the service, every Sunday.  There was an influx of English speaking people into the Area since the 1860's. This is the origin of family names such as: Middleton; Reid; Morkel and others. It was the start of an Anglican congregation. With a collection money, of which Mr Middleton was the major donor, a Church was build. His wife had the honour of laying the corner stone.

Fouriesburg was the Provisional Capital of the Free State, after Bloemfontein had been occupied by the British in March 1900. Pushing further they trapped the major Boer forces in the Brandwater Basin and with it also the Government. Some of the Boer forces made a run for it to escape the encirclement. The major group was under Christiaan de Wet, who took about 3500 men over 'Slabbertsnek' into the direction of Bethlehem on the 15 July 1900. With him was President Steyn and some of his government. The appeal court and some of the personnel, as well as the wife of the president, stayed behind in the Town and were captured by the British when they occupied the place on the 26 July 1900.

A remnant from those days is the block house situated in the Church Ground. In 1980 it was moved to there. It was one of the types used by the British army. Also in the Church Grounds is the Burger Monument of the men who lost their lives during the Anglo Boer War.

The Railway Station is about 10km out of Town. The trains are still running, judging by the shininess of the rails, although not very frequently. Construction of the Rail Link from Bloemfontein through to Bethlehem via Ficksburg was started soon after the end of the Anglo Boer war in 1902. The stretch from Ficksburg to Fouriesberg on to Bethlehem was completed in 1907. In the Local Cemetery is the grave of the first preacher of the NG Church, Michiel Heyns and British War Grave of F.H. Owen (It is surprising that there is only one British War Grave, as there was a fair amount of the Anglo-Boer War fought, in this Area.) Although its is only 1.8 km long, the beautiful little 'Poort'- (Afrikaans for narrow path through the mountain), packs 10 corners into its short length as it sinuously tracks the course of the Little Caledon River through a deep canyon. The Poort terminates at the Caledonspoort Border Control Post, which manages access in to and out of Lesotho. This route can get very busy, particularly on Friday and Sunday afternoons, so avoid it during these times if you can. The road surface is good for the most part, but there are a couple of sections where the tar has broken up.

"It is a real pity that the Poort is so close to the border post, as the sheer stunning beauty of the surrounding area is not really noticed by most people as they rush through it in preparation for the border crossing!"