In the article below Cathy Robertson tells the story of the meticulous restoration of Onze Molen in Durbanville in the mid 1980s. The article was first published in the 1986 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.
One normally associates the romantic vision of windmills, with their sails turning majestically in the wind, with Holland. A portion of the Cadastral map of Cape Town c.1893 indicates that this was a common sight along the Liesbeek and Black valleys too. The most familiar windmills were the truncated-cone tower-mills which were in evidence early in the eighteenth century. Only one South African windmill with wings has survived the ravages of time - Mostert's Mill in Mowbray. It was restored in 1935 by a famous Dutch millwright, Bremer. He left a maintenance manual for adjusting and repairing the mill and this is preserved at the mill.
There were many watermills and horsemills in the country areas but very few windmills. A few simple tower-mills were erected in the Western Province. The tower of one still stands at Windmeul, Agter-Paarl, the base of another in the district of Malmesbury and a portion of a tower at Durbanville was used as a basis for the reconstruction of Onze Molen.
This windmill at Durbanville has been reconstructed as the focal point of a building project financed by the Natal...
