Come to Robertson for your Holiday – Come to Stay

CAPE ARGUS - 1927, August 4

Robertson (but half-a-day’s journey from Cape Town) is most beautifully situated, with mountains surrounding. It is well laid out, and the scenery alone is worth a visit to Robertson. 

COMMERCE IN ROBERTSON

Dried Fruit Factories, Distilleries and Wineries form the major section of industrial activities. Robertson offers a splendid opportunity for a considerable industrial expansion.

SOCIAL LIFE IN ROBERTSON

The Dutch Reformed church is a feature of Robertson and well worth seeing. A Library and Reading Rooms provide for those of literary taste. Patrons of the Theatre will find the splendid bioscope and entertainment hall absolutely modern. Entertainers seldom fail to pay Robertson a visit, and the town does not lack in dances.

SPORT IN ROBERTSON

A fine recreation ground provides for Football, Hockey and Cricket. Tennis Courts, Croquet Court and a nine-hole Golf Course provide for those of other tastes. Boating, Bathing and Fishing in the Breede River, are within easy reach of the town. There is Mountaineering is the neighbourhood; the foot of most of the peaks is easily reached by motor.

CAPE TIMES - 1933, April 25

A PARADISE FOR PICNICKERS

Some delightful spots are within easy reach of Robertson by motor-car. There is, for instance, the De Hoop drive to the mountains – a winding way with farms clinging to the slopes of the foothills and nestling in the valleys. The scenery all the way is splendid and the traveler gains some idea of the remarkable fertility of the farms. From Burger’s farm it is a short walk to the waterfall. Robertson gets its drinking water supply from this spot, which with other places in the neighbourhood, is a magnet for picnickers. The grandeur of the Langebergen range dominates this part of the district.

Equally popular is the short drive to Dassies Hoek. From the town the road leads to a square-shaped cleft in the mountains known as the Window Ledge. Winding up the foothills in easy gradients, the motorist passes works where a good quality lime has been produced from the blue limestone of the mountain. From the top of a hill the farms of Dassies Hoek are seen perched on the mountain side and extending down the valley. But for the absence of chalets, the scenery is typically Swiss in character. At the river there is a poplar grove frequented by picnickers. Higher up is another waterfall which splashes into an almost circular canyon. The scenery here, as elsewhere on the slopes of the mountain chain, has a singular charm. From here a bird’s eye view may be had of the main features of the fertile and beautiful Garden district. A short and very pleasant little drive is the one through the Government plantations to the Silver Strand on the Breede River. Here a fine stretch of sand and safe boating and bathing are enduring attractions to town people. Robertson’s roads are good, and its scenic resources endless. Those who wish to go further afield than the spots mentioned may take the road through the smiling valleys down to the famous Cogman’s Kloof. Here, and at Zandvliet in particular, they will find farms second to none in South Africa. Robertson itself, it may be added, is an easy four hours’ drive from Cape Town. A more pleasant spot away from the hustle of the city could not be desired.

Kimberley – a new Dutch Reformed Church and Stock Exchange in 1886

CAPE ARGUS - 1886, June 3 & June 19

Diamond deposits found in 1871 on a farm led to the Kimberley Big Hole/ Kimberley Mine. In 1872, more than 50 000 diggers were living in New Rush, the mining town surrounding the Colesberg Kopje on the farm Vooruitzicht, owned by the De Beers brothers. In 1873 bigger houses were built and the town was renamed KIMBERLEY. By 1900 the town, named after the Earl of Kimberley (British Secretary of State for the Colonies), was a prosperous town. Kimberley is well-known as South Africa’s most innovative town as it had the first Flying School, first Stock Exchange and first Electric Street-Lights in the Southern Hemisphere.

 

The first Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1871, but in 1885 a very substantial and handsome Dutch Reformed Church was erected in Kimberley at the cost of £5 000. It could no longer be said that there were no Dutch in Kimberley. The “Central Centre” of the colony had always prided itself upon its cosmopolitanism, but singularly enough its cosmopolitan sympathies had tended to exclude the one non-English race in which English colonists there were most intensively interested – with which they had to mingle completely in time. Kimberley then fell completely into rank with other colonial towns. Judging from the opening proceedings, the members of the church had shown a self-reliant and progressive spirit worthy of the place in which they had now made their home. In front of this building the Concentration Camp Memorial was built to honour those who died in the Newton Concentration Camp during the Anglo-Boer War.

On June 9, 1886, The Standard Diamond Mining Company of the Kimberley Mine (Ltd) gave notice to shareholders that Mr. S Marcus had been appointed as the London Agent of the Company for the purpose of opening a London Share Register, Transferring Shares and Paying Dividents. All Shares registered in London would be stamped “Dividends on these Shares payable only in London.

Read more about Kimberley at:

https://www.experiencenortherncape.com/visitor/citiesandtowns/kimberley