Pennington is a small coastal town on the

south coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

of KwaZulu-Natal,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. Apart from a large sugarcane and dairy farming industry, it also hosts scores of holiday makers who flock to the seaside during the December holidays. It is named after an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

family named Pennington, who began farming here in the late 19th century. Sir Frank Reynolds, the

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

magnate, bought part of the farm and developed a country home which he called Umdoni Park after the mdoni (water myrtle) trees in the area. Sir Frank built a seaside residence for South African prime ministers as a sign of his admiration for the first premier of the Union, General

Louis Botha Louis Botha (; 27 September 1862 – 27 August 1919) was a South African politician who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa – the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war hero during the Second Boer Wa ...

. King George VI of Britain was offered use of this home when his health was failing in 1952, and was planning to visit it just before he died. The town is set on a hillside looking down onto the Indian Ocean. The railway runs between the town and the beach (as it does all the way along this coast from Durban to Port Shepstone, but trains are few and cause little problem for visitors. The area is well served with roads as the motorway N2 runs down from Durban, connecting with the airport and passing Pennington. https://www.penningtonkzn.com/

References

Populated places in the Umdoni Local Municipality {{KwaZuluNatal-geo-stub