Rosmead is a Karoo village situated along the R56 Provincial Route in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, approximately 11 km east of Middelburg and 77 km south-west of Steynsburg.
Rosmead falls within the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality and the Chris Hani District Municipality.
The village of Rosmead wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the railway. Most people probably don’t even know it exists at all. Middelburg Road, as it was initially called, was a Cape Government Railway station and was established around April 1883, when the Railway Line from Cradock (officially renamed Nxuba) was inaugurated.
Due to its location at the junction of the Western, Midland, and Eastern Railway Systems, the village played an important role in the Military and Economic affairs of the Region. In 1898, it was renamed Rosmead in honour of Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of the Cape from 1881 to 1897, who was appointed Lord Rosmead in 1896.
The Village was probably occupied by Boer forces when they overran the district in October 1899 during the Second Anglo-Boer War. During the Battle of Modder River, on 28 November 1899, it occupied a central position in the Boer line of defense. After being subjected to a heavy barrage from British artillery throughout the morning, the Boers retreated from the village, and by 14:00, British troops had taken this position. By the next morning, the Boer army had abandoned the Field to the British.
Rosmead was still a thriving settlement in the early 1970s and included a busy station, huge fuel storage tanks, and a military camp. On the evening of 12 November 1972, a number of locals and soldiers at the camp saw a bright light (some said it was a series of moving red lights) zig-zagging across the Karoo sky. The light reportedly hovered over the school’s newly built tennis court and then disappeared.
Closer investigations the next morning showed several scorch marks and holes in the tar of the tennis court. Nearby trees were burnt and died soon after, and fragments of tar and rock were later found strewn as far as 200m away. It seems an alien craft could have hovered over Rosmead, landed briefly, and then, using its afterburners, simply took off into the night again. The official word though, is that it never happened and the damage was caused by vandals. Sounds a bit like the Roswell incident at Area 51 in the United States of America.
