Ngqwarhu Hills (Snodgrass’s Shop) Battle Memorial

After the abaThembu had seized Ngcobo town during the 1880 war, they advanced in the direction of Queenstown. Two hundred colonial soldiers of Kaffrarian Mounted Volunteers encamped at Snodgrass’s shop under the command of Baron Van Linnsingen, one of the German military settlers of 1857. The Snodgrass’s shop was used by the colonial forces to store arms in 1880. The shop still stands and was again utilized in the 1980s to store arms, but for a very different purpose. The shop had passed into the hands of the Qongqo family, some of whom were APLA and others MK. Both armed formations used the place as a safe house during the armed struggle, doing their training exercises not far from the site of the former battle.