This is 'old families' territory, with vast cattle ranches, sheep farms and horse studs upholding lines of inheritance dating back to our pioneering days. English settlers based at Port Natal- Durban began unlocking the Midlands region during the early 1830s, and governors of the Natal Colony allocated generous tracts of land to consolidate this expansion from the coast.

These developments impacted not only on the relatively new Zulu realm forged by mighty King Shaka, but also encroached on the already-diminished domain of nomadic San hunter-gatherers - the indigenous Stone Age people confined by Zulu imperialism to the foothills and peaks of the nearby mountainous Drakensberg range. For the San - degradingly referred to in European-based history as 'Bushmen' - the arrival of domesticated animals in their last foothold heralded a rare and welcome new source of food. Needless to say, the English path-finding farmers held an altogether different view, and Colonial authorities dispatched an ex- Nottinghamshire regiment to quell stock raids. The aptly- named First Sherwood Foresters - now playing 'Sheriff of Nottingham' to the San's 'Robin Hood' - completed their garrison in 1856 and named it after their English Midlands home. The village that evolved alongside the Fort's approach was duly titled Nottingham Road, and they annually pay raucous, mead-fuelled tribute to history with our drawcard Sherwood Medieval Festival.