Millwood Mines
In 1876, while looking for pebbles for his ostriches, James Hooper discovered what he thought was gold-bearing gravel in a small creek off the Karatara River on the farm Ruigtevlei. His suspicions were confirmed by the town chemist, William Groom. (The creek was later named Jubilee Creek to commemorate Queen Victoria's jubilee.) The news lured fortune-seekers from as far as the UK, California and Australia. Within weeks a village of 135 stands, hotels, boarding houses, general stores, a post office, police barracks and a hospital were erected. Unfortunately, a mere 656 ounces of gold were recovered in the first year of mining operations. By December 1890 virtually all the mining companies collapsed.
MINING DETAILS
Millwood House
The name Millwood was given to the area well before the discovery of gold – back when Charles Osborne was employed to open a sawmill there for timber merchants, Thesen & Co. The project included the construction of a dedicated mule pathway (the sawn timber was tied to mules for transportation), which ran from the mill up to the track on the crest of the southern ridge. A section of this pathway is still in use as part of the Outeniqua Hiking Trail. Millwood House was moved to the corner of Queen and Clyde streets in Knysna from its original site in the Village of Millwood after the village was abandoned when mining ceased. It's now part of the Knysna Museum.
THE LONGER STORY
Tottie van Reenen
Pieter Joseph Vin van Reenen was born in 1877 and married Florence Eleanor Cross – better known as Tottie. This is where Totties Farm Kitchen (and Sunday Market) gets its name from. Pieter wanted to farm and Cape Town was too expensive and the prospects were not that great either. They even considered Kenya, but eventually settled on Roodekraal / Redlands in 1912. They took the train from Cape Town to George, whereafter they took a horse-drawn cart and followed the road along the Seven Passes, and decided to settle in our valley. In 1920, the Van Reenen family bought the Rheenendal Farm and Tottie started her shop (and later also butchery) from an old storeroom behind the main farmhouse. The shop moved to its current position and also served as the showroom for the stinkwood furniture they produced, as well as a petrol station and postal service for the area.
THE VAN REENENS
Portland Manor
The first recorded farmer, Stephanus Jesaias Terblanche, settled in this region in 1770. He was granted a loan permit to farm Melkhoutkraal – situated on the eastern banks of the Knysna River and stretching from the Eastern Head to the present-day industrial area. In 1774, his younger brother, Salomon, acquired a farm to the northwest of the estuary, called Leeuwenbosch. George Rex bought a portion of Leeuwenbosch (De Poort) from Salomon in 1819 and renamed it Portland. He eventually owned all the farms along the Knysna Estuary and beyond (effectively the entire Knysna River basin in total of around 25 000 acres) – Melkhoutkraal, Eastford, Westford, Uitzigt, Leeuwenbosch and Springfield.
PORTLAND MANOR'S TIMELINE