We are very excited to publish this piece on what appears to be South Africa's oldest surviving windmill. The article was written by Ivor Dekenah (note the surname) and appeared in the 1981 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation, known today as the Heritage Association of South Africa (HASA). Thank you to the Restorica copyright holders, the University of Pretoria, for giving us permission to publish.
In a large courtyard in the grounds of the Alexandra Institution, Maitland, Cape, stands South Africa’s oldest windmill. Completed in 1782, it will be 200 years old in 1982 [233 years old in 2015]. fourteen years older than Mostert’s Mill on De Waal Drive, Mowbray, known to all Capetonians and tourists. Few people are aware of the older Dutch mill, yet is is well worth a visit.
The mill, marked Nieuwe Molen on the maps of that time, is a massive truncated-cone tower-type structure fully 42m high, with sides sloping much more steeply than those of other Cape windmills and about a metre thick at the base. In a Government Notice of 4 August 1978 declaring it a National Monument, it is described as “bullet-shaped”. With its enormous sails - slightly tilted on account of the sloping sides - proudly turning in the wind and its white walls gleaming in the sunlight it must have been the most prominent feature along the Liesbeek and Black Rivers.
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