Heriotdale is a suburb of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

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 countri ...

. The suburb lying south of

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

and north of Rosherville, is an industrial area. It is located in Region F of the

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Z ...

History

Prior to the discovery of gold on the

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...

in 1886, the suburb lay on land on one of the original farms called ''

Doornfontein Doornfontein is an Suburbs of Johannesburg, inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, located to the east of the city centre, Region 8 (Johannesburg), Region 8. History The area, whose name means "thorn fountain", was originally the southe ...

''. Before becoming a suburb, the area was mining land with the Heriot Mine opening in 1887. After the gold was exhausted in the mine, the land was proclaimed as a suburb in October 1946. The mine is said to have been named after the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

goldsmith

George Heriot George Heriot (15 June 1563 – 12 February 1624) was a Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist. He is chiefly remembered today as the founder of George Heriot's School, a large independent school in Edinburgh; his name has also been given to H ...

, the "Jingling Geordie" in Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

's novel

The Fortunes of Nigel ''The Fortunes of Nigel'' (1822) is one of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott. Set in London in either 1623 or 1624, it centres on the Scottish community there after the Union of the Crowns and features James VI and I . Composition and sour ...

. Some experts, however, claim the mine was instead named after the village of

Heriot Heriot, from Old English ''heregeat'' ("war-gear"), was originally a death-duty in late Anglo-Saxon England, which required that at death, a nobleman provided to his king a given set of military equipment, often including horses, swords, shields ...

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

, Scotland. This village was founded in 1164 as Herth, but its name was changed in 1198 to Hereget (from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''here-geat'', meaning a break in a hillside through which troops could march. Die myn se naam is na bewering afgelei van die Skotse goudsmid George Heriot (1563–1624), die "Jingling Geordie" in sir Walter Scott se roman The Fortunes of Nigel. Sommige kenners beweer egter die myn is genoem na Heriot in Midlothian, Skotland, ’n naam wat in 1164 voorkom as Herth en in 1198 as Hereget, wat daarop dui dat dit afgelei is van Ou-Engels here-geat, wat ’n gaping of opening in die heuwels waardeur ’n leër dalk kan beweeg"beteken.

Sources

* Stals, Prof. Dr. E.L.P (ed.). 1978. ''Afrikaners in die Goudstad'', vol. 1: 1886 - 1924. Cape Town/Pretoria: HAUM.

References

Johannesburg Region F {{Johannesburg-stub