Registered Heritage Body HM/CB/28-02-2020/03
NPO 272-966
Protecting Napier’s cultural and natural heritage
Registered Heritage Body HM/CB/28-02-2020/03
NPO 272-966
Protecting Napier’s cultural and natural heritage
The history of Napier and its people continues to fascinate. On this blog, we provide insights into different aspects of the town and its history by a series of guest bloggers ranging from experts to amateurs, old-timers to newcomers to our town.
In 1896, ‘a guide for the settler, the sportsman, the tourist and the invalid …’ was published by the Union Castle Line in which Napier was described as the only town on the route ‘where refreshments may be had’. The Tea Room – note, not a coffee shop – was situated opposite the present-day Napier Country Hotel.
In those days, travelling from Cape Town to the southernmost region of the country was a leisurely undertaking. The train left Cape Town Station, stopped at Durbanville Station, then Somerset-West Station and finally Sir Lowry’s Village Station. From there, the horse-drawn postal coach proceeded over the pass to Grabouw and then on to Houw Hoek, where overnight facilities were available for travellers and their horses at the Houw Hoek Inn.
After a well-deserved rest, travellers would continue on their coach ride over the Houw Hoek Pass to Caledon, where they could choose either the Riviersonderend or the Napier-Bredasdorp-L’Agulhas route. Having arrived at the southernmost tip of Africa, the traveller could return immediately or stay for a whole week until the next Saturday, when the postal coach would once more arrive to deliver post and travellers. Alternatively, one could hire horses to return to Bredasdorp at an earlier date. The travel time from Bredasdorp to the southernmost tip was 4 hours.
In those days, travelling from Cape Town to the southernmost region of the country was a leisurely undertaking. The train left Cape Town Station, stopped at Durbanville Station, then Somerset-West Station and finally Sir Lowry’s Village Station. From there, the horse-drawn postal coach proceeded over the pass to Grabouw and then on to Houw Hoek, where overnight facilities were available for travellers and their horses at the Houw Hoek Inn.
Before 1798, there were a few towns but no churches in the Overberg, and so these towns formed part of the Stellenbosch Dutch Reformed congregation. Elders and pastors would visit the remote regions of the Cape Colony from time to time for Holy Communion and to officiate at christenings, weddings and confirmations. Because of the distances, burials were conducted by local elders. A Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) congregation was founded in Swellendam in 1798 and in Caledon in 1811.
On Sunday, 8th September 1833, the process to obtain the necessary permission to found a town, a religious congregation and a church in this district was set in motion. Three possible sites were identified for the new town: The farm Langefontein (present-day Bredasdorp), Klein Zanddrift, a farm situated halfway between Napier and Bredasdorp (where the brick factory is today) and the farm Klippedrift (present-day Napier).
On December 28 1837, the farm Klippedrift was purchased, and on April 12 1838, the first plots were auctioned off. April 12, 183,8, is therefore regarded as the ‘founding date’ of the town of Napier. Initially, the town was known as Klippedrift, but after the necessary permission was obtained and granted in 1840, the new town became known as Napier, named after Sir George Napier, governor of the Cape Colony at the time. Bredasdorp was eventually founded in the same year on the farm Langefontein, a mere 16 kilometres from Napier.
2. The first church, now the church hall, grew out of the aforementioned farmstead, which was enlarged over the years as the congregation expanded. This church building now serves as the Napier Dutch Reformed Church’s church hall.
The present-day Dutch Reformed church, with its steeple with a rooster as a wind vane, was built opposite the manse. The Hope Hall (Hoop Zaal), a church and community hall facing Sarel Cilliers Street, was demolished to make way for the church. The new church building was inaugurated on April 14 1928.
3. There used to be a wagon builder next to the Feeshuis. This building was later transformed into a garage, and still exists. A second wagon building concern was situated on the premises of the liquor store in Sarel Cilliers Street, while a third wagon building concern used to be near the corner of Hoog and Church Streets, opposite the present-day church hall.
4. An Anglican Church used to stand on the site opposite the current DRC Hall. The church collapsed one evening during a storm in the 1980s and was demolished. The new Anglican Church is on Wes Street, and the belfry houses a bell that comes from a ship that was wrecked in the 18th century. Regrettably, this bell was stolen for scrap metal during the COVID pandemic in 2020.
5. Opposite both churches, on the corner of Sarel Cilliers and Church streets, you will find the Napier Country Hotel, also part of the ‘old’ town, representing the Overberg’s Jewish heritage.
Photograph compliments of Juanita from SA Photography http://www.juanitasa.com
6. Napier boasted no less than three mills at one stage. One of them was situated opposite the church on the corner of Mill Street and Sarel Cilliers Street. The building is presently called Napier Traders.
Photograph compliments of Juanita from SA Photography http://www.juanitasa.com
The Rev Dr CC Nepgen was sworn in as Napier’s new Dutch Reformed minister on Sunday, November 29, 1925. He ministered in the Napier community for 30 years and left in April 1955. He was the driving force behind many building projects, amongst others the new church and the new manse. He was also responsible for the following buildings, all situated within the historical hub of the town.
7. The old school (now the Napier Retirement Village) dates back to 1907. responsible for the following buildings, all situated within the historical hub of the town.
Photograph compliments of Juanita from SA Photography http://www.juanitasa.com
8. The Post Office building.
9. The building next to the post office, which SAPS currently uses as a staff dwelling, was previously a hostel for disadvantaged children. Originally, there were two identical hostels next to each other, one for boys and one for girls, but one was demolished to make way for the Post Office. The two hostels were named after Dr Nepgen as Nepgen Oord.
10. The present-day library.
11. Two main streets. Hoog Street used to be the main thoroughfare through town. Sarel Cilliers Street was named much later and eventually became the so-called main road of Napier. “Hoog” referred to the fact that the street was ‘high up’ – Bredasdorp also has a Hoog Street!
The Voortrekker pastor Sarel Cilliers, who accompanied the Voortrekkers during the ‘Great Trek’ to Natal in 1838, passed through Napier and slept over in town in the 1860s after having been shipwrecked at L’Agulhas en route to Cape Town from Natal. He permitted his name to be used to name the main road of Napier.
Photograph compliments of Juanita from SA Photography http://www.juanitasa.com
12. Another link with Voortrekker history is the ox wagon monument in Sarel Cilliers Street that commemorates the 1838 Groot Trek into the interior. It was erected in 1938.
The whole community gathered on the present-day cricket field to commemorate the centenary of the Great Trek. The footprints of the oxen used to pull the commemorative wagon to the cricket field were imprinted in concrete and can still be seen next to the wagon monument.
13. The Newmark Business Complex housed Napier’s very own bioscope in the section of Van der Byl Street between Hoog and Sarel Cilliers Street. The complex later became the BNK (Bredasdorp Napier Koöp), which eventually became Overberg Agri. It was owned by Abe Newmark, a prominent member of the Overberg’s Jewish community who had established themselves as a businessman and hotelier
Abe Newmark’s business was situated where Napier Antique is currently housed. The Newmarks used the whole building, and their large home was directly behind it, where the present-day municipal buildings are.
14. Opposite the Newmark complex (in the second house from the corner of Van der Byl and Sarel Cilliers Streets, dated 1896) was the “boarding house” where local teachers rented rooms.
15. Suidhoek Verbruikers was a general and hardware store housed in the current OK building. The house of its manager was on the opposite corner.
16. Gunners Mess Guesthouse, restaurant and pub used to be a general dealer named Harris Kontant Basaar, but the main building was destroyed by fire. A new building was erected in its place
17. Napier’s Nagmaalhuise or ‘Holy Communion’ houses.
On Hoog Street as well as Sarel Cilliers Street, there are several so-called Nagmaalhuise. Farmers used these dwellings when they came from the farms for the quarterly Holy Communion weekends. The first service was on Friday evening, with the last on Sunday evening. Napier Farm Stall, Pascal’s, Suntouched Inn and Café Max eateries are all housed in very old historical residences.
. Many of them still boast the original wooden floors. The ‘garden plots’ on the other side of Sarel Cilliers Street belonged to these owners and were used to plant vegetables, fruit trees, etc., and for grazing horses, sheep and cows as well as chickens. Families were self-sufficient and bartered, especially eggs and sheepskins, with Newmark and other local shopkeepers.
18. The home of Afrikaans author, poet and dramatist Wilma Stockenström
Writer Wilma Stockenström, who twice received the prestigious Herzog Prize for Literature for her work, lived with her parents in the house opposite Gunners. Her father was a teacher at the old school where she was a pupil. Her medals and copies of her books are housed in the dining room of the Napier Retirement Village and are well worth a visit. Wilma Stockenström now lives in Cape Town (2021).
19. The play school on the corner of Krag and Van der Byl Streets in Tamatiekraal used to house the electric generator when Napier was ‘electrified’ and for many years was called the power station or “kragstasie”. The generator was switched off at a certain time in the evening. Legend has it that the generator was kept on one evening for a confinement managed by the local doctor at the home of the mother-to-be, who safely delivered twins. The generator was replaced with power from the ESKOM power utility, hence Krag (Power) and Eskom Streets in Tamatiekraal.
20. The land where the current cricket field is was donated to Napier by the Van der Byl family in 1938 as part of the Groot Trek Centenary celebrations.
21. At the Caledon entrance to town, there used to be a dam where horses, oxen and donkeys drank water – they were all used to pull wagons and carts before motorcars became common. All the water that was directed through town via the town’s historical leivoor (watering canal) system led to this dam. Unfortunately, this piece of history was demolished when the new Overberg Agri was built opposite the present-day Fox Pub and Restaurant. Remnants of the leivoor system can still be seen today.
22. Napier was known as the ‘strawberry town’ of the Overberg at one stage, with a farmer from Bloubokkiesfontein who was ‘the strawberry king’. There were fruit orchards all along the road opposite Napier Farm Stall, where the bowling club is situated today.
With thanks to Ora Laubscher for the information supplied. © Ora Laubscher
