Lugares de interés (POIs) del Mapa
4: 7th Precinct: KRAMAT OF SEYED ABDUL HAQ AL QUADERI
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=216031&id=201229746552&ref=mf
The KRAMATS are the burial places of Cape Town's local saints, and occur at water points. These sacred places form a circle around the mountain - the 'Circle of Islam'. “It is quite clear from documents, the archives and oral and spiritual traditions in our community that there is much historical importance that can be attached to the area.” – Shafiq Morton.
Water has a very significant spiritual meaning for those of the Islamic faith and thus the connections beween water, our local Islamic saints, and that of community are inseperable.
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 7th Precinct: KRAMAT OF SEYED ABDUL HAQ AL QUADERI 6: 7th Precinct: PLATTEKLIP MILL
Resurrected during Edwardian times asa semi-detached cottage, this is the original structure of the Platteklip Mill; and is used by the Forestry and WaterworksDepartments of the City of Cap Town.
The miller who owned it from1834, was Petrus Johannes de Wet, who used to grind wheat, barley and curry,which earned him the name of 'Kerriekruie' (curry spice) De Wet, as he ground the curry spices (kerrie-kruie), for the washerwomen.
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
SEE RAASWATER PRECINCT:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160617&id=201229746552&page=2
OLD MILLSTREAM:
Más sobre 7th Precinct: PLATTEKLIP MILL8: 7th Precinct: LOWER WASH HOUSE
33*94'57.56" S 18*41'78.76" E
THE PLATTEKLIP WASH HOUSES
Cape tradition was that the slaves took the population’s laundry to Platteklip. As a result of the pollution caused to the stream by the washing of the linen, two large wash houses were erected with 70 cement wash tubs and proper ironing facilities (flat irons, heated over live coals) at a cost of £2 000, for which the women paid 3d/day to wash there.
Later, the authorities built a wash house in Hanover Street (District Six), although the women continued to toil up to the ‘wasplaas’. In 1954, the municipal authorities closed down the wash houses, which today serve as a depot for the Waterworks Department of the City of Cape Town. Most recently, SANPARKS resurrected the upper wash houses to provide accommodation to eco-tourists on the Hoerrikwagga trail.
This, the Lower Wash House - used for storage, is inaccessible to the public....
have a peek. (c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 7th Precinct: LOWER WASH HOUSE9: 7th Precinct: RAASWATER WASPLAAS
Here lies a gem of our cultural history.
Cape tradition was that the slaves took the population’s laundry to Platteklip. After the emancipation of the slaves (1834), their descendants continued to launder at Platteklip and at Capel Sluit, and to hold the 'place' as a special one.
“Every afternoon when the weather was warm the old washer-women would offload their bundles of washing at the corner of the Old Homestead at Oranjezicht. One of the sights of Table Mountain was the long procession of Malay washer-women, huge bundles on their heads, swinging along up Hope and Buitenkant Streets and along the Slave Walk. (Today’s Gorge Road) For many years they used the stream and rocks provided by nature, to be scoured and bleached. Almost daily more than 100 slaves could be seen, busy with the family washing.” (In Joe Lison 1970:38)
“After the abolition of slavery, there was a celebration along Platteklip on the first of December each year. The washer-women would clutter up the mountain in their ‘kaperrangs’ (clogs). Early in the afternoon they would leave their washing and dance waltzes to improvised music. Then, as twilight began to creep through the pines, they would march with their bundles down the path by the crumbling slaves walls of the Oranjezicht and Rheezicht estates”. (In Joe Lison 1970:38)
“On one such occasion, an attractive Malay girl, the wife of an Hafiz, named Abdul Malik, lost the ring her husband sometimes let her wear, while washing clothes at Platteklip Gorge. She and her friends searched high and low along the banks, but the ring was never found again......
The ring had been given to Abdul by a great scholar in Mecca under whom Abdul studied Islam. The aged scholar considered him to be his best scholar; and besides bestowing much love upon him, gave him a ring which he was always to wear on his finger. The significance of the ring was never understood, until one day when he went to have his head shaved according to Islamic rule. The barber found that the razor would not cut. After attempts with a second razor had also failed, someone in the shop suggested that Abdul might be wearing a charm, guaranteed to prevent his being harmed by a knife. Puzzled, Abdul removed the ring and experienced no difficulty being shaved. On occasions, the Hafiz’s wife found that when she was wearing the ring, she was unable to cut bread and anything with a blade seemed to be magically turned away when brought near her.
The ring was lost. The search was fruitless. Tradition says that the Hafiz’s magic ring will be found again, one day.” (In Joe Lison 1970:39)
Indeed, a ring was found in 2006, by an American scholar - Dr. Elizabeth Grzymala Jordan - on this site. Dr. Grzymala-Jordan's work looked at slavery globally, and in particular at the role of women slaves. The work she carried out in Cape Town, is recorded in a document submitted as part of her DPhil in Anthropology: "FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL: Washerwomen, Culture, and Community in Cape Town, South Africa", January 2006 - submitted to the Graduate School New Brunswick, State University of New Jersey, USA. The dig revealed plentiful artefacts - enough to fill 34 boxes.
Robert Ernest Bryson (born 1867, Glasgow) was a composer who wrote symphonies. In 1926 he composed an opera: The Leper’s Flute, with words by Ian Colvin. It is the story of the legend of the washer woman's ring.
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 7th Precinct: RAASWATER WASPLAAS10: 7th Precinct: 5 UNCELEBRATED SPRINGS
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176604&id=201229746552
Five of Table Mountain's artesian freshwater springs, namely BELTZFONTEIN; SCHOLTZFONTEIN; KLEINTUIN; KLIP and VERLATENBOSCH issue on the mountain and are led down to this rather compromised culvert and into the stormwater system on the corner of Bridal & Rugby Roads, Oranjezicht.
There exists no data as to how much water is available from the 5 springs that collect at this point, other than for the Kleintuin Spring, which in 1960 measured 0.74l/s.
In 1995, the water was tested and found to be of low pH and alkalinities, therefore corrosive to concrete and metalic fittings.
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 7th Precinct: 5 UNCELEBRATED SPRINGS13: 6th Precinct: ORANJEZICHT FARMSTEAD
HOMESTEAD PARK
A derelict park and left-over bowling green on the corner of Upper Orange Street and Sidmouth Avenue: The original Oranjezicht Farmstead (the one time largest farm in the Upper Table Valley) was occupied by the van Breda family for 7 generations. (The van Breda family burial tomb still exists in Montrose Avenue).
Pressured to sell off pieces of the old farmstead due to the water needs of the expanding settlement (12 of the city bowl's artesian springs issued on this land), the last remaining land and homestead only sold in 1947, to the City of Cape Town. Despite ideas at the time to turn the house into a museum, it was demolished in 1957.
Remnants in the park, include some old werf walls, a gate pillar, Islamic (possibly slave) graves, an outbuilding of c1800 and a belltower c1775, as well as the old spring (Stadsfontein or Main Spring, as it became known) and its covering vault, some old lei-water channels and other elements of civic hydrology.
More recently, it has become a community Park, and improvements are already visible there. It has fallen under the care of a civil society group - "The Oranjezicht Heritage Society".
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 6th Precinct: ORANJEZICHT FARMSTEAD14: 6th Precinct: STADTSFONTEIN
Main Spring lies within the "Field of Springs". The occurrence of springs along the slopes of Table Mountain are due to the exposure of the contact zone between the porous Sandstone and the impermeable Granite. 17 (possibly 18) Artesian springs occur within the City Bowl.
The largest of these - the Stadtsfontein, is Cape Town's very raison d'etre. Long forgotten, the spring spews in excess of 3.5 million litres of water into the storm water system.
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA33*56'31.35" S 18*24'55.74" E
Más sobre 6th Precinct: STADTSFONTEIN19: 5th Precinct: DE WAAL PARK
DE WAAL PARK
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251026&id=201229746552&ref=mfLand acquired in 1877, as part of that required for the Molteno Reservoir was designated for Jubilee Park, which had originally been the burial grounds of the Hofmeyr and Smuts families. The original vault stood in the south western corner of the park, but it has been replaced by a granite monument which now stands in the grounds of the Cape Town Medi-Clinic, on the opposite side of Molteno Road.
David Christiaan de Waal (Mayor of Cape Town in the 1880s), planted thousands of trees in Cape Town, commenced with those he planted in the park. He supported further development of the park, which by 1897 was a popular camping resort (hence the name, Camp Street) and later named after him. It was declared a National Monument in 1968.
Today the park serves as a neighbourhood park, primarily as a socialisation ground for dogs. Children use the park despite the derelict playground equipment, leaking fountain, inundation of ‘bergies’ and that the public toilets are no longer operational.
More recently, it has become a community Park, and an improvement is already visible there. It has fallen under the care of a civil society group - "Friends of De Waal Park".
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 5th Precinct: DE WAAL PARK20: 5th Precinct: TWISTNIET MILLS' SITE
TWISTNIET MILL was comprised of two large mills one erected 1801, the other in 1808, between the Gortmolen and the Rheezicht Mills. These were demolished in the early 1900s.
(In Rennie and Riley 1986)
The site of these mills today encompasses a large playing field, off Upper Orange street, and disconnected from the old river, but the pattern can still be 'read' in the old oak trees that once lined the river banks.
There exists a vast amount of wasted / lost space in the form of disused tennis courts which have now fallen into disrepair, 2004.
Más sobre 5th Precinct: TWISTNIET MILLS' SITE22: 5th Precinct: HURLING SWAAI PUMP
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=167881&id=201229746552
THE HURLING SWAAI-PUMP
The Water Committee decided that hand-pumps, operated by swaying the lever back and forth, should be introduced, to provide the laborious task necessary to prevent the wastage of water. Several pumps were introduced within easy distance of
available streams. Each pump was built over a well supplied by a wooden pipeline (later iron was used). At the end of the pipe in a well, a ball cock was attached which kept the cistern regularly supplied and prevented waste.
Pumps mentioned include those that were situated on Burgherwagtesplein (Greenmarket Square);Boerenplein (Riebeeck Square) and one in Bree Street - and by all accounts pretty much existed for each street/neighbourhood area. The Hurling swaai-pump is the only one that remains.
The swaai-pump was designed by the French Architect, Thibault. It was constructed as part ofthe improvements to Cape Town's water supply in 1813 and declared a National Monument in 1937. Archival evidence indicates that the spout was carved by Anton Anreith.The spout is virtually identical to the "green medicine man" used in water features across Indonesia.
Under the road, exists a reservoir that apparently holds in the region of 700 cubic metres of water. The water was formerly piped here, from the Field of Springs and from Waterhof Spring.
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 5th Precinct: HURLING SWAAI PUMP26: 5th Precinct: ZORGVLIET MILL'S SITE
ZORGVLIET MILL, on the corner of Prince and Sir George Grey Streets, opposite the Zorgvliet tuin and the Hurling swaai pump. The exact date of its erection is not known, but it was already in existence from 1825, when Michiel van Breda was listed as 'miller, and owner of the garden and house at Zorgvliet'. In 1848, Jacob Letterstedt (and his wife) were the registered owners of the 'Prince Street Mill'. In 1857, James Smith was themiller at 'Letterstedt's Mill, in Prince Street'. In 1867, Zorgvliet Mill was owned by H.O.A. Truter, with Willian Cox and H. Groenewald as the millers. And in 1869, the mill was sold to W. Silberbauer, who also owned the Platteklip, Rheezicht and Annnandale Mills at this time. It was converted into a house and later demolished, in the 1950s.
(In Annexure C: Rennie & Riley, 1986).
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
SEE
ZORGVLIET MILL:
Más sobre 5th Precinct: ZORGVLIET MILL'S SITE28: 5th Precinct: GORTMOLEN MILL'S SITE
GORTMOLEN MILL
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4002434&id=201229746552&ref=fbx_album
THE GORTMOLEN (Barley Mill) erected in 1741, stood at the corner of St. Quinton’s Road (which had once been a deep ravine if the Platteklip Stream) and Mill/Annandale Street. Of cultural interest here, since Street is named after George William Prince (died 1858), who took possession of the Gortmolen in 1855. The Mill continued to function until the early 1900s and was only demolished in the 1960s - its site is today occupied by the De Waal Hotel and the Lennox Residential Hotel. (Rennie and Riley 1986).
(c) RECLAIM CAMISSA
Más sobre 5th Precinct: GORTMOLEN MILL'S SITE