I am back from a great but short holiday to Hanover, South Africa. Hanover is
a town that has a short but interesting history. When you first see the town it
looks like a ghost town but when you get to know something about the town you
realise that there is a lot more to the town than first impressions led you to
believe.
On Saturday, our first day in Hanover, I woke up to wonderful smells from the
local Saturday food market. The food market happens every Saturday and it
involves most of the town. I quickly ate breakfast and then went to the market
with a friend of mine, Allan, to buy pancakes and strudel. We chatted to the guy
that sold us the strudel he said that he woke up at 4AM to prepare the pastries
for the market. The market is held on Queen Road, in front of the Hanover Lodge
Hotel.
The Hanover Lodge Hotel is one of a few hotels and guest houses in the town
but I would say that it is the place to stay. During our stay we found that
people from the other hotels and the locals all meet at the Hotel’s bar in the
evenings. We had a phenomenal time there and Eddie and Beryl were fantastic
hosts. They kept us informed of what to do and when to do it.
Beryl has only been in Hanover for about 8 years and in that time she has
become the local historian. She has a story for nearly every house in the town
plus is involved in the local museum.
Eddie get involved in whatever happens in the town for example he is one of
two people that make sure that the Leiwater is flowing in the Leivoortjies.
After breakfast, Beryl told us that the curator of the church was about to
open the church and he is willing to show us around the church. A couple of us
rushed to the church to meet him and to get to see the marvels in the
church.
Unlike most towns where the town is built and then the church it built here
the church was built and only then the town. The story goes that the farmers
settled in the Bo-Zeekoeirivier district sometime in the 18th century. There
were not all that many farmers so if the farmers needed anything like medical
supplies, a magistrate or the services of the church they would have to travel
200km to the nearest large town, Graaff-Reniet. As you can imagine it didn’t
help the local community because it took the farmers a week or more to get there
by ox-wagon so they would only make the trip a couple of times a year. In July
1854 a six-man committee bought the farm Petrusvallei from Gert Gous and soon a
town started to form. Gous asked if the town could be named after the town in
Germany where his family came from. The committee agreed and the town became
Hannover. Subsequently the town lost one of the n’s in its name.
I am meant to be talking about the church and not the town. The current
church is not the original church that the town was built on. I am not sure if
the original church was the old farmstead, which is now a museum, or if it was
where the new church is situated. The new church is not new by South African
standards, it was built in 1907. The picture below shows that the date is placed
on one of the walls of the church. The church was built with very little funds
but a lot of care and imagination. A good example of this is that the roof was
built on a centre rod with supports leading away from it. The original roof was
built with corrugated iron which it quite light so one would think that this was
overkill but in the passing years the original roof was replaced with tiles.
Very clever I would say.
The church bell was built in Cape Town and transported
to Hanover in 1908. Today there is a curator that checks the bell and clock
daily to make sure that it still works and is on time. We were lucky enough to be given a tour of the
church by oom Willie. After telling us a little about the history of the church oom Willie
took us up the bell tower. The clock was amazing. I felt like I had been
taken back in time and was looking at the clock in its original glory. The
various town members must have had a lot of pride in their clock because it
looks completely new. Oom Willie told us that he had recently serviced the clock and he
does it every couple of months. The clock was out of sinc when we were there and
Willie showed us how to fix it. Of course we were not much help in
telling him the time. Between the 6 of us there none of us had the
same time on our watches. Oom Willie patiently smiled at us and set
the time to his watch.
Whilst we were waiting for the others to join us from our climb up
the bell tower Oom Willie showed us the key to the front door. It was abnormally
large. I went to inspect the lock for the front door and found that not only was
the key large but the lock for the door was upside down. They got a lock for a
door that was meant to open in the opposite direction and instead of replacing
the lock they put it in upside down.
Another interesting fact that he told us was that the church lamps were
originally gas lamps with the gas coming from pipes leading down from the roof.
When they got electricity they turned the lamps around and ran the wires down
the same pipes. The look is fantastic.
The church needs a lot of repair work done on it. Some of the wood has rotted
and is beginning to split and it is in good need of a paint, other than that it
is beautiful and worth a visit.
Next stop: Nieu Bethesda.
a town that has a short but interesting history. When you first see the town it
looks like a ghost town but when you get to know something about the town you
realise that there is a lot more to the town than first impressions led you to
believe.
On Saturday, our first day in Hanover, I woke up to wonderful smells from the
local Saturday food market. The food market happens every Saturday and it
involves most of the town. I quickly ate breakfast and then went to the market
with a friend of mine, Allan, to buy pancakes and strudel. We chatted to the guy
that sold us the strudel he said that he woke up at 4AM to prepare the pastries
for the market. The market is held on Queen Road, in front of the Hanover Lodge
Hotel.
The Hanover Lodge Hotel is one of a few hotels and guest houses in the town
but I would say that it is the place to stay. During our stay we found that
people from the other hotels and the locals all meet at the Hotel’s bar in the
evenings. We had a phenomenal time there and Eddie and Beryl were fantastic
hosts. They kept us informed of what to do and when to do it.
Beryl has only been in Hanover for about 8 years and in that time she has
become the local historian. She has a story for nearly every house in the town
plus is involved in the local museum.
Eddie get involved in whatever happens in the town for example he is one of
two people that make sure that the Leiwater is flowing in the Leivoortjies.
After breakfast, Beryl told us that the curator of the church was about to
open the church and he is willing to show us around the church. A couple of us
rushed to the church to meet him and to get to see the marvels in the
church.
Unlike most towns where the town is built and then the church it built here
the church was built and only then the town. The story goes that the farmers
settled in the Bo-Zeekoeirivier district sometime in the 18th century. There
were not all that many farmers so if the farmers needed anything like medical
supplies, a magistrate or the services of the church they would have to travel
200km to the nearest large town, Graaff-Reniet. As you can imagine it didn’t
help the local community because it took the farmers a week or more to get there
by ox-wagon so they would only make the trip a couple of times a year. In July
1854 a six-man committee bought the farm Petrusvallei from Gert Gous and soon a
town started to form. Gous asked if the town could be named after the town in
Germany where his family came from. The committee agreed and the town became
Hannover. Subsequently the town lost one of the n’s in its name.
I am meant to be talking about the church and not the town. The current
church is not the original church that the town was built on. I am not sure if
the original church was the old farmstead, which is now a museum, or if it was
where the new church is situated. The new church is not new by South African
standards, it was built in 1907. The picture below shows that the date is placed
on one of the walls of the church. The church was built with very little funds
but a lot of care and imagination. A good example of this is that the roof was
built on a centre rod with supports leading away from it. The original roof was
built with corrugated iron which it quite light so one would think that this was
overkill but in the passing years the original roof was replaced with tiles.
Very clever I would say.
The church bell was built in Cape Town and transported
to Hanover in 1908. Today there is a curator that checks the bell and clock
daily to make sure that it still works and is on time. We were lucky enough to be given a tour of the
church by oom Willie. After telling us a little about the history of the church oom Willie
took us up the bell tower. The clock was amazing. I felt like I had been
taken back in time and was looking at the clock in its original glory. The
various town members must have had a lot of pride in their clock because it
looks completely new. Oom Willie told us that he had recently serviced the clock and he
does it every couple of months. The clock was out of sinc when we were there and
Willie showed us how to fix it. Of course we were not much help in
telling him the time. Between the 6 of us there none of us had the
same time on our watches. Oom Willie patiently smiled at us and set
the time to his watch.
Whilst we were waiting for the others to join us from our climb up
the bell tower Oom Willie showed us the key to the front door. It was abnormally
large. I went to inspect the lock for the front door and found that not only was
the key large but the lock for the door was upside down. They got a lock for a
door that was meant to open in the opposite direction and instead of replacing
the lock they put it in upside down.
Oom Willie showed us the pews and showed us that each pew had its
own number. We joked saying that it was just to make sure that no one missed
church. Willie smiled patiently, I guess that he had heard that story a hundred
times, he told us that the pews were reserved for certain families. So no one
can take a seat away from another family.
own number. We joked saying that it was just to make sure that no one missed
church. Willie smiled patiently, I guess that he had heard that story a hundred
times, he told us that the pews were reserved for certain families. So no one
can take a seat away from another family.
Another interesting fact that he told us was that the church lamps were
originally gas lamps with the gas coming from pipes leading down from the roof.
When they got electricity they turned the lamps around and ran the wires down
the same pipes. The look is fantastic.
The church needs a lot of repair work done on it. Some of the wood has rotted
and is beginning to split and it is in good need of a paint, other than that it
is beautiful and worth a visit.
Next stop: Nieu Bethesda.
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