THE NOBLES 1906 - 1947
Old Rearsby Farm is situated along the Hlatikulu Rd, 9 km out side of Mooi River, at the brow of what was once known as Noble hill. The  Victorian style farmhouse overlooks the Connington valley and the  magnificent giant’s castle mountain range. Noble hill was  named after the original owner of Old Rearsby, pastor  Samual Henry Radcliffe Noble, and the farm itself, was named after the town in England, close to where he was born, a little town called Rearsby, which is 10 miles north/east of Leicester.

Pastor Noble was pastor of the local Mooi River parish from 1906 to 1920. He came from a little town in England called Frolesworth.(see history Rearsby in index) He was the sixth generation of Knoble men of the cloth . I have traced his lineage back to the 1600s, and the town of Rearsby back to 1068. He  built Old Rearsby in 1906, along with his wife, Mabel, and 2 daughters, Audrey Margaret born 12/6/1910 and Helen Mary. His father was Rev. S.H. Noble, rector of Frowlesworth, (Frolesworth) county Leicester, and Mabel’s father was a certain James Lamb Moore, hailing from Wigan, Southport Lancashire.

The original name of the property was Rearsby.(The Old was only added years later by Brigadier James Parker, owner 1998 – 2005) Mabel died at  Rearsby  4/2/1941 at age 58. The old pastor passed on 27/2/1945 some 4 years later.Helen married Robert G.C. Armstrong, and died in childbirth while Robert was away in the military in East Africa. The child survived, and was named after her dear mother, but came to be known by the name Molly. She was brought back to  Rearsby  as an infant, and looked after by her grandparents , the Knobles, for a while, but then went onto living at Danefort, in Park Rennie for the rest of her  1st 5 years.. Therafter, she grew up with her fathers parents, the Armstrongs.   She married into the Lund family. Her half brother is Graham Armstrong, a well known local potatoe farmer.

Audrey married firstly, to a Mr Edwin Herbert Swan, who died of T.B. 10 June 1943.Together they had 2 children, Jane and Peter (born Feb 1944)  and re-married in 1946 to Lawrence Arthur Thompson. She had embarked on an illicit affair with the married Mr Thompson,who divorced his wife for her . The marriage only lasted 1 year, and Thompson left Audrey to go back to his wife.
Jane, her daughter, married a fellow by the name of Geutche, and moved to Germany, where she died. Peter taught at Treverton school in the 1990s. . Audrey married a 3rd time, to a Dick Visser, of whom little is known and had a 3rd child, called Mark .Pastor Knoble passed the farm onto Audrey, but she chose to sell, in 1947, to the Crawford family.

THE CRAWFORDS 1946 – 1959
The Crawford family bought Old Rearsby in 1946. The Crawfords were a family of mum and Dad, Ewan and Babs , 3 children, and a set of grandparents. They renamed the farm Rob Roy , due to a Scottish connection on Bab”s side of the family. The grandparents stayed in what is now known as Mooi cottage which was built in 1906, and is part of the original establishment.( also built in 1906) Mooi cottage was originally  a thatched roofed establishment. (see pics) The Crawford family owned the original Mooi River bacon factory, on the road out of Mooi River, on the way to Estcourt. They sold in 1959 to a widow, William Tomlinson,and his daughter, Heather.

THE TOMLINSONS 1959 - 1989
Heather owned the farm for 30 years, but unfortunately allowed it to become rather run down. Her father lived in Johannesburg, re-married, and she saw very little of him thereafter. She ran a few cattle on the land, but never made enough money to make ends meet, and eventually started working at the local Standard bank as a teller. She was briefly married, but local folklore has it that they had an argument on the steps of the church, and the marriage was over before it had begun. She remained on her own, never re-marrying or having any children. She sold on to a Mr Allen Edgar in 1989.

THE EDGARS 1989 – 1998
Very little is known of this family, but Mr Edgar did a lot of restoration work on Old Rearsby. The family are now living in Durban, and I have recently been in touch with them. They have promised to provide me with before and after photographs of the renovation on their next trip up to the midlands. They sold to the Parkers in 1998.

THE PARKERS 1998 – 2005
Brigadier Jim Parker and his wife Jeanie bought Old Rearsby in 1998 and did further renovations, adding onto the house, to accommodate their tour operating business. They were able to pass on quite a lot of history , which enabled me to follow the trail and track down the living members of the Noble family.