These blockhouses are all abandoned now but they were built and used by the British during the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902. Blockhouses formed an essential part of British military strategy against Boer commando forces. Initially these were fairly substantial and were used to guard key military points, but once the war moved into its final stages, they were used, together with barbed wire, as a means of limiting the movement of Republican commandos. All in all, some 8000 blockhouses were built over a period of two years, and although most were eventually dismantled, a number still remain in place from the war.
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