Jammerdrif (F 12)

Name: Jammerdrif

Source: http://www.millsofsa.co.za/milltour_fs.htm
By 1890, the Jammerdrif Mill at Wepener was the largest grain mill in Southern Africa. Overlooked by the Jammerberg, which had long been a beacon to travellers, it had been built by the Robertson family, with the help of Scottish stonemasons, around the same time that Charles Newbury was building his mill on the Leeuw River. It attracted up to 100 wagons a day, which patiently waited their turn at the threshing machines, and supplied meal to Kimberley and even Johannesburg. Such roaring trade necessitated the building of a lovely iron bridge over the Jammersdrif in 1891, and Scottish engineers and artisans again thronged the area. Unfortunately, the Free State wasn’t in a position to raise the finance for a comprehensive railway network and cargo transport was reliant upon ox-wagons. When two and half million beasts were felled by Rinderpest, the highly contagious cattle disease that swept through South Africa at the end of the 19th century, the mill wasn’t the only enterprise to suffer; thousands lost their livelihoods. By the time of the Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902), Jammersdrif Mill had recovered sufficiently to provoke the “Siege of Wepener”, which was General Christiaan de Wet attempting to remove the vital breadbox and it’s iron bridge from British control. Today the British trenches are still visible on the koppie (small hill) above the mill, and even the odd bully beef tin still lurks in the veld. The mill, however, once such a vibrant cornerstone of the community, ground it’s last in the early 1970’s when it was razed by a devastating fire.


Free State
South Africa

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MILLS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

Read more at: www.millsofsa.co.za/milltour_fs.htm

Where to stay:

As you move further south on the R26 you'll find the little town of Jammerdrif. Here you'll cross over to the R702 and move south-east for about 11km to find the lovely town of Wepener

http://www.freestatetourism.org/tourism-routes/maloti-route/the-maloti-route.html