Towards the end of the 19th Century, Willem
Jacobus Volschenk built a beautiful little watermill on his farm
Witpoort. This mill was to play a small but vital role in the
Anglo-Boer War. Martial rumblings erupted in 1899 and. As war fever
gripped the country Jan Smuts was moved to write in a memorandum to the
Transvaal Executive: “South Africa stands on the eve of a dreadful
bloodbath.” Sadly he was right.
General Ben Viljoen, member for Johannesburg on the Transvaal Volksraad
not only led the Johannesburg Commando, but led the Boers in skirmish
after skirmish around Lydenburg. As fighting raged in the area, the
Witpoort Watermill proved a vital asset for the Boers. With its three
sieves, ranging in texture from very fine for human consumption to less
fine for chickens and courser for cattle, the mill kept the Boers fed.
Colonel Bindin Blood, leader of the attacking British forces which
finally located the mill, ordered the mill dynamited but fortunately,
only the coarse grinder was destroyed. Another was promptly sourced
from a mill nearby and the mill continued to produce meal for the Boers
and surrounding population until the war was over.
Having survived the war relatively intact, Witpoort Mill received new
machinery from Ipswich, England. The mill prospered and as many as 70
donkey carts at a time could be seen waiting their turn to get their
owners’ maize ground. The process was slow, as with water power, it
took 15 minutes to grind a 70 kg bag of meal and it took three people
to operate the mill. A drought in 1963 changed this as tractor power
had to be used, which reduced milling time to eight minutes a bag.
In 1986 the mill was electrified which speeded up the process even
more. In 1980, it cost R3.10 to grind one bag of meal. When the mill
ceased operating in 1994, this cost had shot up to R10. Koos Sonakhosa
Mahlangu is a living link to the mills’ martial days. His father was
the original miller during the Anglo-Boer War. Koos, from the age of
four, followed in his father’s footsteps. Permanently dusted with the
fine meal kicked up by the heavy millstones, he continued to work the
Witpoort Watermill until it ceased operation. Today, the attractive
red-roofed mill house with its steel overshot wheel is a fascinating
historic addition to what is now a privately owned estate and nature
reserve know as Valley of the Rainbow.
Note: Willem Jacobus Volschenk, the man who built the mill more than
100 years ago, died in 1924. His son, also Willem Jacobus Volschenk,
was born in 1887 and survived the war, only to die in 1946 as a result
of being hit on the head with a shovel during a dispute over water
rights with a neighbour. His grave is in the grave yard on the property.
Mills of Southern Africa
Chester O. Staples
To order Mills of Southern Africa contact Umdaus Press. E-mail:
umdaus@succulents.net
