Klipplaat (E 14)

Name: Klipplaat

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Date: 26 January 2010

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Historic fact:

Prior to the coming of the white man, the area in general was inhabited by the nomadic Khoi (the "Hottentots") and the pastoral Xhosa.

Late in the 18th century, the area became known to the Dutch who named the river the Zondagh, after a settler. After the occupation of the Cape by the British the name transmuted to the Sundays.

The actual site of the town (Jansenville) was first surveyed in 1814 and named Vergenoegd. This property was acquired in 1820 by Christiaan Ernst Schutte. He and his successor moved north and in 1838 Vergenoegd became the property of Petrus Jacobus Fourie from Swellendam who began to cultivate the land along the river. This was the beginning of Jansenville history as a matter of record.

The wagon trail from Port Elizabeth to Graaff-Reinet passed through Vergenoegd which increased the number of people in the area.

In 1853, Fourie arranged for the surveying and laying out of 80 plots on his property in order to establish a town. He had intended the town to be named Alexandria after Dutch Reformed minister Alexander Smith of Uitenhage who visited the congregation once a quarter.

In the event, by the time the application had reached Cape Town, the name Alexandria has already been granted to another settlement so the place was then named Jansenville, after General Janssens, the last Dutch Governor at the Cape.

In 1874 work began on the first bridge over the Sundays River at Jansenville which was completed the following year (below the estimated cost!). To-day the piers of this bridge stand next to the present bridge.

1876 saw the establishment of a police station at Jansenville with a force of two constables as well as the appointment of a magistrate.

The outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War caused something of a rift in the community, with some supporting the British while many sympathised with the Boers. A Town Guard was formed in Jansenville and three blockhouses erected; one on a knoll by the bridge, one at the main crossroads in town and the third (The "Fort") on the hill just north of the town where it can be seen to this day.

Jan Smuts and his commando entered the Cape in 1901 with a view to raising the "Cape Dutch" in rebellion although only small numbers joined him. In the event, Jansenville was never attacked although a small engagement took place at Blaauwkrantz, some 20 km north of town.

A somewhat larger engagement also took place in 1901 near Klipplaat between some 300 men of Kritzinger's Commando and a patrol of West Australians and 7th Dragoon Guards who were covering the right flank of a column advancing from Uniondale towards Klipplaat.1907 saw a remarkable storm which de-roofed or destroyed 22 houses in the little town.

During the First World War a number of Jansenville's sons volunteered to serve against the rebels within the country, against the Germans in East Africa as well as on the western front. Of the fourteen who went to France only three returned.

During the Second World War little Jansenville distinguished itself in a small way at the disastrous fall of Tobruk in 1942 when the 2nd South African Division and other allied units had to surrender to the Germans. Lieutenant Cecil Featherstone, born and bred in Jansenville, declined to surrender and, leading a small convoy, succeeded in evading the enemy forces and bringing 46 men back to the allied lines to fight again.

Jansenville also provided the highest per capita number of volunteers for the forces of any place in South Africa during the war.

On 30th October 1941, with the Sundays River almost dry, there fell upstream 275mm of rain in one day. A few hours later water was flowing over the 13m high bridge. The lower part of the town was destroyed as were the farmlands along the river.


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