History of Watermill Farm
VanWyksdorp lies at the foothills of the Rooiberg Mountains, between the Swartberg and the Langeberg Mountain ranges. This region was home to the Hottentots prior to the coming of the white settlers. When the farm was first settled is unknown, as no records exist, but the earliest buildings still in use on the farm date to around the 1820’s, and were made from raw clay packed in blocks. The later cottages, remodeled over the years as the size of the families that lived here expanded and grew, were made from sun dried clay bricks. The farm itself was later a small hamlet, housing several families. The hand-packed stone terraces still mark the areas of intensive food and fruit production in this fertile space, and the stone kraals speak of the times when there was a dairy herd here. The valley, in which the farm lies, once supported 7 mills for threshing wheat, two of which were reportedly water mills. The mill on watermill farm still shows a few traces of having had a wooden water wheel, which was later replaced to become the existing metal structure. The water for the mill (and indeed the whole village), comes from a perennial eye in the mountain behind the farm. The water would flow through old sloots, through the mill, and then on to the village. The water has been channeled into pipes now, but most of the old infrastructure still remains. In former years, this was a wheat growing area. It was forested and had a much higher rainfall than it does today. Much of the deforestation occurred during the Anglo Boer War. VanWyksdorp was a Boer stronghold, whereas nearby Ladismith was British.
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 Asbos
During the restoration process, clues to the lives that shaped (and were shaped by) the landscape emerged. Much of the history here is still shrouded in the unknown, but is hinted at in discoveries unearthed and stories shared. Some were poignant, like the remains of a child’s pair of shoes, much patched, with a small horseshoe nailed to the heel, or the knives found buried and embedded in the mud brick walls, bearing testimony to a perhaps less tranquil past. Only a few names on the farm’s graveyard remain, the oldest legible of which dates to the 1850’s. It is a humble place on the hillside, with simple stones marking the passing of a loved one, now long forgotten.
There is a delightful tale of a gentleman living here who was rather fond of the fermented fruit of the vine. In the remains of his cottage we found dozens of brown bottles. He had a pony trap and a well-trained pair of donkeys that always delivered him to his front door when he was well into his cups. As was sometimes the custom of those years, he had obtained his coffin prior to his demise, to ensure that his burial would be as he wished it. Upon his return from a bout of drinking, he would climb into his coffin, and the incoherent, disembodied voice, roaring from the depths of the folds of the coffin used to absolutely terrify the children here. At the entrance to the farm, stands an old lye kiln, believed to have been used for the making of lye from the burning of the Asbos (Psilocaulon Utile). The Asbos is indigenous to the area and still grows abundantly on the hillside above the houses. The ash from this plant, when mixed with water, makes a very alkaline lye, which was used not only for soap making, but also as a preservative for dried fruit and the hanepoort grapes grown here – remnants of which still remain on the farm. |
Lye kiln and raisins
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Louw Rabie
The most illustrious of the former owners here, was Louw Rabie (20/6/1922 - 16/12/2002) , brother of the ‘sestiger’ writer Jan Rabie. He started studying geology at the age of 16 at Stellenbosch University (inset photo) and became a legendary geologist, physicist, philosopher and poet. Watermill Farm (then simply known as Boplaas, which included the neighbouring settlements), was the only property he ever owned, purchased when he was in his sixties.
He was a man who had spent most of his life in nature, and was content to allow the buildings around him to simply melt back into the earth they were crafted from. The people of the Eastern Cape called him ‘The Man who Eats Stones’, from his habit of licking a rock to determine its composition.
At the age of 23 he wrote:" On reading a certain page in Spengler's "Decline of the West" (Vol !, p. 25) I suddenly realised why above all the other branches of the subject, practical structural geology has attracted my intention, namely because I like to concern myself with the part of geology which treats its subject matter as "becoming" and not simply as "become" in Spengler's sense - a geological structure is becoming, and a certain stage in its development is only a momentary position in an endless mutational sequence."
South Africa became an important antimony producer (Consolidated Murchison mine), mainly due to his meticulous mapping and interpretation of the mineralization in the structurally complex host rocks. (facebook.com/pages/Spilpunt-Information-for-geologists-exploring-Africa)
Stories of Louw abound, and a favourite was the story of his buying a new vehicle. Louw was a shy man and a recluse, and drove to Oudshoorn (some say Albertinia) (some 160kms away) to buy a new vehicle on his own. Once he had got the new vehicle, he drove it back for 10kms, then stopped, walked back to the showroom, picked up his old vehicle and drove for 20kms. He then stopped, and walked back to his new vehicle, and drove it along for another 20kms. He then repeated the process until he had got both vehicles home to the farm.
He was a man who had spent most of his life in nature, and was content to allow the buildings around him to simply melt back into the earth they were crafted from. The people of the Eastern Cape called him ‘The Man who Eats Stones’, from his habit of licking a rock to determine its composition.
At the age of 23 he wrote:" On reading a certain page in Spengler's "Decline of the West" (Vol !, p. 25) I suddenly realised why above all the other branches of the subject, practical structural geology has attracted my intention, namely because I like to concern myself with the part of geology which treats its subject matter as "becoming" and not simply as "become" in Spengler's sense - a geological structure is becoming, and a certain stage in its development is only a momentary position in an endless mutational sequence."
South Africa became an important antimony producer (Consolidated Murchison mine), mainly due to his meticulous mapping and interpretation of the mineralization in the structurally complex host rocks. (facebook.com/pages/Spilpunt-Information-for-geologists-exploring-Africa)
Stories of Louw abound, and a favourite was the story of his buying a new vehicle. Louw was a shy man and a recluse, and drove to Oudshoorn (some say Albertinia) (some 160kms away) to buy a new vehicle on his own. Once he had got the new vehicle, he drove it back for 10kms, then stopped, walked back to the showroom, picked up his old vehicle and drove for 20kms. He then stopped, and walked back to his new vehicle, and drove it along for another 20kms. He then repeated the process until he had got both vehicles home to the farm.
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