HAGGARDS ON HILLDROP
Accommodation Services in Newcastle

The Braai Lapa is available for private use and a favourite meeting place. In recognition of exceptional service Haggards Hilldrop B&B in Newcastle has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence. Whether you choose the comfort and privacy of our beautiful rooms or to relax on your verandah or at our pool, we can assure you will enjoy your stay with us. Our comfortable and spacious non-smoking rooms have been designed to accommodate all our guest’s needs, whether on business or holiday. With unbelievably warm hospitality, inviting interiors and magnificent garden surroundings from every room, Haggards on Hilldrop is every traveller’s home away from home. Re-named Mooifontein, it is described in Jess: It was a delightful spot. At the back of the stead was the steep boulder-strewn face of the flat-topped hill that curved round on each side, embosoming a great slope of green, in the lap of which the house was placed. His academic career was undistinguished and, after failing the Army Entrance examination, he was sent to London to study for the Foreign Office examination. There he became unofficially engaged to Mary Elizabeth Jackson, known as Lilly, but the romance was put on hold when in 1875 Haggard’s parents arranged for him to join the staff of Sir Henry Bulwer, Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. Looking for a new start, Haggard and Cochrane resigned from their jobs and bought a small farm, Rooipoint, just outside Newcastle, where they intended to farm ostriches. The couple returned to South Africa just as the First Anglo-Boer War broke out. But the change in British fortunes convinced the Haggard family to leave South Africa. He ventured briefly into business and also stood for parliament but failed to win a seat. Haggard’s agricultural studies, A Farmer’s Year (1899) and the two-volume Rural England (1902), brought him recognition as an authority on land issues. He traveled to the United States to investigate schemes for the resettlement of the urban poor and also served on the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion and Afforestation. During the trip Haggard returned to old haunts, toured Zululand, interviewed John Dube, first president of the African National Congress, and was reunited with Mazooku. During World War One, Haggard toured the dominions to investigate the post-war settlement of servicemen.