- The historic and only (nearly) working windmill in Africa, Mostert’s Mill, is nearing its former glory following the ravaging fire of Sunday 18 April 2021 in which it was almost completely destroyed.
- All that remained, according to the Mill’s website, was the masonry tower, the sails, the millstones, the original ironmongery (which was salvaged from the ashes) and the knowledge of the FoMM gained over 25 years of operating and maintaining the mill.
- With the restoration in its completing stages, an important job was to “wind the cap”, being the turning top of the building, into the summer position when the Southeaster prevails.
“We’ve had two productive workdays at the Mill,” said Andy Selfe, a member of Friends of Mostert’s Mill (FoMM), after their most recent elbow-grease restoration operation over the weekend of Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 October at the windmill located on Philip Kgosana Drive (M3) in Mowbray.
This historic and only (nearly) working windmill in Africa is nearing its former glory following the ravaging fire and, in some ways, is far better than it had been restored previously in 1995.
On Sunday 18 April 2021, a wildfire broke out on the slopes of Table Mountain. Fuelled by strong winds, it spread quickly, causing widespread destruction. Among the structures badly damaged by the blaze was Mostert’s Mill. Built in 1796, the windmill was the oldest surviving complete windmill in South Africa (“Mill to get a new life”, People’s Post, 9 November 2021).
All that remained, according to the Mill’s website, was the masonry tower, the sails, the millstones, the original ironmongery (which was salvaged from the ashes) and the knowledge of the FoMM gained over 25 years of operating and maintaining the windmill.
With the restoration in its completing stages, an important job was to “wind the cap”, being the turning top of the building, into the summer position when the Southeaster prevails.
Selfe said: “It was hard work, but the ‘cap’ now faces in a better direction, not being tail-winded by the Southeaster. A good job because we’re experiencing very strong Southeasters at present!”
“There’s no need to go to Virgin Active when you’ve worked a day at the Mill,” joked FoMM’s chair John Hammer.
“Recently, the newly refurbished millstones, imported from the Netherlands thanks to crowd funding and logistics as managed by Sven Verbeek, were hoisted up onto the stone’s floor. The bedstone has been installed in the stone curb and the neck bearing fitted.”
Hammer emphasised the Friends’ increasing excitement to reveal all their hard work at the re-opening of the Mill.
“People frequently ask me when they’ll be free to visit the Mill again, there is so much interest in its restoration. Before the fire, the Mill used to function one Saturday per month where we would make meal and sell it to folks who want to bake homemade bread. We also sold bread and beer produced by the Mill,” Hammer continued.
As to the quality meal this 18th century windmill produces, he illustrated meal comprising of flour, bran and wheat germ, the last mentioned being “what makes bread so delicious. Everything you buy in the shops, they’ve taken the wheat germ out because it hasn’t got a shelf life. But the wheat germ is what contains all the main nutrients in bread.”
READ | Sails ahoy for Mostert’s Mill: Restoration project nears the finishing line
Previously, the aim was to hold the opening ceremony on Saturday 22 April 2023 – the closest Saturday to the date that the windmill burnt down.
Hammer was asked when the big reveal would be, to which he said: “We are so close, but since it’s only a few of us volunteering our free time, we don’t wish to rush things and put a deadline over our heads.
“We’re making great progress, and that’s what matters most.”
When it came to mentioning the team involved, Hammer said “there are really too many names to mention them all. There are four of us on the Restoration Team being Andy, John Wilson-Harris, Clive Thorpe and myself…We have four John’s and Juan working at the mill, so we have all now got nicknames: I’m Pilot John while Wilson-Harris is Long John; Jon Stevens is Straight Jon and John Manning is Fynbos John while Juan had a big beard so he became Baard Juan.”
This dedicated team is now concentrating on the rynd to be fitted in the runner stone and this lifted onto the bedstone. The vertical shaft then needs to be completed so that it engages with the brakewheel, which will drive the runner stone, in order to grind the wheat into meal. “The stone’s furniture can then be completed, which surrounds both stones. The floorboards need to be mortared into the walls and the meal floor resurfaced. The inside of the mill can then be whitewashed.”
While a lot of work remains before its official re-opening, the Friends take pride in their hard labouring investment to refurbish this historic, functioning industrial relic for South Africans to take pride in, once again.
