Old Towns and Villages of the Cape Hans Fransen

Condition: Very good. Mild shelfwear on bottom boards. Light edge wear on DJ.
Format: Coffee table hardcover with DJ
Published: 1980 (A. A. Blakema)
Pages: 456
ISBN: 0869611232

This is the first serious study of the physical history of the older towns of an area of the former Cape Colony reaching north as far as Calvinia and east to Grahamstown and Colesberg. Of almost one hundred towns, villages and hamlets the foundation is sketched as well as the role of surveyors, and other factors, in their initial layout and subsequent growth.

Well over seven hundred illustrations, including hundreds of early watercolours and pioneer photographs, most of them never published before, record their appearance up to the beginning of the 20th century.

The book describes the formation of new drostdy districts like Swellendam, Graaff-Reinet and Worcester, of new Dutch Reformed church congregations like Tulbagh and Robertson, of boeredorpe like Montagu and Calitzdorp, of harbour settlements like Simons Town and Mossel Bay, of mission towns like Genadendal and Mamre. It illustrates things like water erven, leibeurte, tuishuisies, outspans and market squares.

A unique feature of the book are the many detailed aerial photographs, few of them ever seen in print, some dating back to the 1930s and showing the towns before modern developments brought about irrevocable changes in the townscape. Although containing mostly previously unpublished information, research and insights, all this is presented in a very readable style. With its rich pictorial component. it will be a coffee-table volume as much as an invaluable reference hook.