Thomas River (South Africa)
| Thomas River | |||
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| Coordinates | 32 ° 28 ′ S , 27 ° 16 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Eastern Cape | |||
| District | Amathole | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA-EC | ||
| local community | Amahlathi | ||
| founding | December 31, 1800 | ||
| Website | www.oldthomasriver.co.za (English) | ||
 Historic train station building in Thomas River
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Thomas River , also Old Thomas River Village or Thomas Rivier ( Afrikaans ) is a small rural settlement in the municipality of Amahlathi , Amathole District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The houses are grouped around a former railway station and are now a small tourist attraction.
History and meaning
The Dutch missionary Jan Theodorus van der Kemp founded a mission station on December 31, 1800 on the Keiskamma River within the territory of the Xhosa chief Ngqika (later called Gaika). 58 German and British deserters from the border wars settled with him . While hunting in the undeveloped areas of the Thomas and Kei rivers, San fighters watched the European invaders. While crossing a stream, they killed the English missionary Thomas Bentley with an arrow. In memory of this, van der Kemp named the previously unnamed river in Thomas River .
The group of houses Thomas River, built around the end of the 1870s, was a point on the Great Northern Route from the ship landing point Port-Rex (now East London ) to the north of the Cape for settlers and traders at the beginning of the 19th century . From this port all required goods were transported to the northern regions by ox wagons on a gravel road. Many deliveries to Kimberley and Johannesburg came via this route . To safeguard the journeys, rest and refreshment points were laid out for the ox wagons at distances of 25 to 30 kilometers. Thomas River was one such place. The maintenance of the road required a toll from drivers of the heavily loaded wagons at a bridge over the Kubusi River about 30 kilometers south of Thomas River . In order to avoid this payment for reverse empty trips, a less paved route was chosen from Thomas River Village over the Amathole Mountains , not far from Mount Thomas (1617 m).
For several decades, the region had been marked by armed conflicts between the native Xhosa and San people and the British colonial administration. They culminated in a dispute between the indigenous black population and the colonial administration, which broke out openly in the fall of 1877.
The economic relations with the hinterland of the port of East London developed so successfully that the considerations for the construction of a railway line were put into practice. With the construction of the railway line from East London to Queenstown in the late 1870s, Thomas River received its first station building, which was also protected by a small fort.
On the outskirts of the village there is an elongated quarry in a dolerite corridor on a flat hillside , which not only supplied building blocks for houses and the station water tanks in Thomas River as well as some railway bridges, but also provided material for buildings in distant Queenstown. English skilled workers were recruited to work the stone in the 19th century.
Only after 1900 did the situation calm down and the farms stabilized in the area around Thomas River, so that the processing of animal products became an important economic factor. The leather industry around East London at that time also obtained its raw hides from this region.
A small community school had to close in 1950. Since then, the few children have been going to class in the more distant cities. The station lost its importance completely when the new road ( national road N6 ) between Stutterheim and Cathcart was put into operation in 1954 . In 2003 the restoration of the settlement and tourist activities began.
railroad
The line on which Thomas River once lay is one of the earliest railroad systems in the Cape Colony. On August 19, 1873, the then Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, Sir John Charles Molteno , opened the railway line.
In Thomas River the steam locomotives were supplied with the necessary water. For this purpose, the railway company erected water storage tanks, and the state administration built a weir not far from the Esher Farm building in the upper reaches of the Big Thomas River , in order to continuously supply water from there by means of a five-kilometer ditch across the dry landscape of the railway station. This supply function increased the importance of the station. This is remarkable because in the wide area the Karoo sandstone layers in the subsurface cause surface water to seep away quickly and the region receives little rainfall anyway. The elevations of the Amathole Mountains and the Elandsberg massif to the west already absorb a large part of the rain.
Not far from the station, the railway line crossed the deeply cut valley of the river of the same name on a steel bridge. The entire bridge construction was supplied by a company from England with the construction of the route by ship . The transport took place via the port in East London and then by ox cart to the construction site. After a later locomotive accident on the bridge, the railway administration ordered the line to be closed and later dismantled it in the vicinity of Thomas River.
Today there is a modern and electrified railway line six kilometers east of the settlement. A small new stop is also called Thomas River again. This is why locals refer to their group of houses as Old Thomas River Village .
Attractions
- old post office (telegraph connection here since 1877)
- old station building
- three stone towers of a former small fort with loopholes and heavy wooden doors
- old dining hall (today a historic restaurant)
- old school (today community library)
- Thomas Rivers Farmers' Hall
- old hotel building
- old trading house (mainly wool trade)
- old stable building and military post (now a museum for rock carvings of the San)
- old workshop for repairing automobiles ( Wagon Museum )
literature
- Neil Wardle, John Potter: Take an hour to amble through our historical village. (Information)
- Jeff Sansom: Notes on the stations of historical interest. (Information)
Web links
- Official site of the settlement (English)
- Website to nature around Thomas River (English)
Remains of the old fort on the station grounds
Entrance to the Museum of petroglyphs ( rock Art Museum )
Adventure restaurant in the station's former dining hall
Ox carts for heavy loads in the Wagon Museum
