The verandah of the Florida Jail, soon to be restored

Consequences of Jameson Raid JAMESON and four of his military advisers were sent to England to stand trial, while four members of the Reform Committee were sentenced to death. Some received prison terms, and others were fined. The death sentences were commuted and substituted with fines of £25 000 - only two paid up, the other two served a year in jail. Rhodes resigned and fled to England. Although Jameson received much support in England, he served 15 months in jail in England. According to wikipedia.org, from 1904-08 Jameson became prime minister of the Cape, and was one of the founders of the Union of South Africa in 1910. When he died in 1917, he was buried alongside Rhodes in the Matopos Hills, Zimbabwe. The immediate consequences of the failed raid were that Joburg was given municipal status in 1897, thus giving it more independence to run its own affairs; pass laws were promulgated in 1896, encouraged by the Chamber of Mines, restricting the movement of blacks, who were needed as unskilled labourers as mines were deeper; and rail rates for trains linking towns along the reef were reduced, thus enhancing profits. But despite these reforms, the town experienced a recession from 1896 to 1898, which precipitated the war. The tensions simmered for the next four years, and by October 1899 things had come to a head: the British and Boer forces met at Talana in northern KwaZulu-Natal, in the first of many battles of the South African War, which ended almost four years later with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902 in Pretoria. RELATED LINKS: Early pioneers: the Struben brothers HOW was gold discovered in Johannesburg? Many of the pioneers of the South African interior suspected that there was gold here somewhere - it had, after all, been found a few hundred kilometres to the east, in Barberton. Read more Confidence Reef: where the gold trail began A STRANGE disturbance among rocks on a hillside caught the eye of Fred Struben, one day in 1884. He and his brother Harry had spent years prospecting for gold on their farms 60 kilometres north of the Vaal River. Read more Why the gold came to the reef FORTY percent of all the gold ever mined comes from one place - the Witwatersrand - and geologists still can't agree on why. Read more Three Georges strike paydirt WHO discovered Johannesburg's main gold reef? We know where the discovery happened, and more or less when it happened. What we don't know is who actually made the discovery. Read more Joburg's earliest settlers WE'VE heard about the early Boer farmers who settled on the Witwatersrand. We've admired the colonial buildings in suburbs like Parktown and Westcliff. We've read about the Boers and Brits going head to head in the Anglo Boer War, but what about the very first settlers in the region? Read more

The gleaming bolts of the stamp mill, beautifully restored

Roodepoort's old buildings up for revamp When it comes to heritage buildings, Roodepoort, once an important reef for gold diggers in the 1880s, has plenty to offer discerning visitors. August 29, 2006 By Lucille Davie FOR a 100-year-old, the Florida Jail in Roodepoort is not in bad shape. But, like any antiquarian, it could do with a little TLC, which it will soon receive. A national heritage site, the jail has three formidable cells of varying sizes and is, according to conservation architect William Martinson, "a fine, intact example of turn-of-the-century Public Works Department architecture". That means it's a solid structure, with a firm stone base, attractive red-brick walls, thick doors, red-painted iron roof and sash windows and a verandah. But, hold on, jails don't have sash windows and verandahs. They have small, firmly barred windows, and this jail certainly has those. But that's the thing about this jail - it's also a home, and that's where the sash windows and verandah belong. On one side of the building is the jail, with tiny inner courtyards, solid doors and small windows high up in the three-metre high walls. Like a jail should be. But another door opens on to the house, with fireplaces, wooden floors, an old cast-iron coal stove, and curtains at the windows. The warder evidently liked to be close to his charges. A large palm grows in the south-west corner, close to the building, with a water tank below it in the grass. The structure is enclosed in a high metal fence. The house is now used by the Red Cross for training purposes, while the cold cells are used for storage or remain bare. The jail, the only remaining building of the former ZAR period in Roodepoort, will soon undergo maintenance work. The roof, which leaks in places, will be repaired; and the wooden posts, doors and wooden window frames are to be scrapped and repainted. The size of the jail is indicative of the small community that it served. White farmers settled in the area from 1854, and by the 1880s gold seekers were sniffing around the area. In 1884 Fred and Harry Struben found gold and declared their Confidence Reef, in the heart of the present-day Kloofendal Nature Reserve. The tunnels and caves that remain are now a protected heritage site. The reef ran dry after a year but when the main reef was discovered in Langlaagte in Johannesburg in 1886, gold diggings along the reef resumed in Roodepoort. Four townships were laid out: Roodepoort in 1887 and again in 1898; Hamberg in 1888; Florida in 1888 and 1889; and Maraisburg in 1887. While in 1904, the settlement consisted of a smattering of wood and iron houses, scattered on the bare veld, by 1907 the population stood at 22 100, according to the Roodepoort Record of 28 March, 1997. The town consisted of general dealers, chemists, bakers, tailors, wagon builders, blacksmiths and transport contractors. Its growth was rapid. Water pipes were laid in 1906, and in 1910 electricity lit the town streets and houses, replacing paraffin street lamps. In 1977 Roodepoort received city status, and today consists of an area of roughly 180km². Municipal offices Another of the national heritage sites in Roodepoort is the elegant municipal offices, on the corner of Berlandina and Hodgson streets, built in 1906. At a cost of £1 380, it drained the coffers of the newly formed municipality of Roodepoort. But it marked a significant victory for the small community that had sprung up in 1884 some 20km west of Johannesburg: in August of 1904 the Roodepoort-Maraisburg district, as it was then known, was given municipal status, meaning that it could elect a mayor and town clerk. H Ross-Skinner became the town's first mayor, and James Mitchell became the town clerk. The first big issue to be resolved by the mayor was where the proposed new municipal offices were to be located. Votes were split down the middle: those who wanted it to be located in the nearby suburb of Florida, and those who wanted it in the bigger suburb of Roodepoort. The elegant Municipal Office, now a public branch library Several weeks later another meeting was held; a councillor changed his mind and swung the vote in favour of Roodepoort and two years later the municipal offices were opened. Designed by Charles Hosking, the building nestle on a firm stone base, with wooden windows, several chimneys, red tile roof and a distinctive tower and pointed roof. In 1918 Frank Fleming, partner to the well-known architect Herbert Baker, designed the west wing that was added. The building served the town of Roodepoort until 1936 when the local library and museum moved in. Nowadays it serves as a branch library, with the west wing soon to be used for community after-school outreach purposes. The Roodepoort Town School This school, barely a block away and also a national heritage site, now houses a priory, Our Lady of Sorrows Priory. The first school in the area was opened in nearby Hamberg in 1894. The following year it was moved to Roodepoort, and shortly after 1901 it was moved to the present site in Amelia Street. The new building was erected in 1913. It retains its charming Victorian school layout: two quadrangles, joined by a small hall, with separate entrances for boys and girls, and even small toilet blocks in the playground. It's finished in a fine red brick, on a stone base, with a red, iron roof, with brick chimneys - each classroom has a fireplace, wooden floors and high wood-slate ceiling - with a row of large, decorative iron vents along the A-framed hall roof, together with an elegant cupola. The priory bought the building in 1992, and has made small changes, the most significant of which is turning the hall into a delightful chapel. The glass of the three arched windows in the front have been replaced with thin grey marble tiles, allowing in subdued light. A gallery has been added at the back, holding an organ. The dark-stained wooden rafters in the ceiling remain, adding a loftiness to the structure. Pews and an altar finish the feel, and give the chapel a serene ambience. Several buildings on the site have been added over the years, now used for storage and workshops, and another hall on the property has been sold off to a neighbour. Two very old pepper trees stand at the entrance to the school. The east edge of the Roodepoort Town School, with the cupola on the hall roof The school still runs, with all of 10 pupils, in grades one, two, three and five, taught by two teachers. Three priests, three nuns and one brother stay in the priory. Father Coenraad Daniels says when they moved in 14 years ago they had to undertake maintenance of the building, like repainting the window frames and the roof, which is due to be painted again this year. He says they are mindful of the fact that, as a heritage building, it cannot be altered in any way. The changes to the hall are superficial and were approved by the heritage authority of the time. Daniels tends to the spiritual needs of 250 Catholics in Roodepoort. Stamp mill Immediately in front of the Florida Jail is the stamp mill, on the corner of Goldman and 7th streets, believed to be imported from England by the Struben brothers. It would have been brought to the Transvaal from Natal by ox-wagon. The 4m-high mill has recently been restored and stands safely behind a metal fence, protected from the weather by a roof. Big bolts hold the gleaming pistons and wheel sections in place, secured to thick wooden beams. The mill is soon to be relocated to the place where it was active: in the Kloofendal Nature Reserve where the remains of the Confidence Reef are securely locked behind a fence. The Strubens used the mill to crush raw rock which they dug out of the reef, before they washed the crushed rock in search of gold. Their reef was found on one of the four original farms - Roodepoort (settled by DG Grobler in 1854), Vogelstruisfontein (acquired by JG Steyn in 1864), and Paardekraal (bought by JG Geyling in 1866). But once the reef ran dry, these three farms were proclaimed public diggings in 1886. While George Harrison discovered gold in Langlangte in 1886, the main reef in Roodepoort was discovered by JG Bantjes just south of the Florida Lake. By 1890 the railway line from Joburg reached Roodepoort, with stations at Maraisburg and Florida. Delarey House The Struben brothers could have lived in a house similar to the one on the corner of Boundary Road and 3rd Street in Roodepoort. One of the few remaining examples of an early wood and iron house, it was originally built in the early 20th century as a small three-roomed cottage. The wood and iron house in Roodepoort, a reminder of life 100 years ago In 1909 the house was extended southwards, with a verandah and new façade added. These days it sits rather forlornly on its corner, protected by a tall metal fence and a row of conifers, with a large jacaranda in its rather bleak garden. Its wooden posts and edgings are in dire need of a fresh coat of paint, but it stands as a quaint reminder of life in early Roodepoort. The Jameson Raid Roodepoort featured prominently in the history of South Africa towards the turn of the 20th century. Tensions had been building in the Transvaal or South African Republic since the discovery of gold, with the British greedily eyeing the gold profits being made in Johannesburg. Transvaal President Paul Kruger and his burghers distrusted the not-very-welcome outsiders or uitlanders who had already annexed the diamond diggings in Kimberley in the Cape. The British had earlier annexed Natal and were now after the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. With the flood of uitlanders entering the town, the Boers in the area were soon outnumbered. The issue of voting power for the uitlanders came up, but Kruger wouldn't hear of it. Instead, he created a volksraad or council for Joburg, consisting only of Boers, to administer matters, particularly mining ones, in the town. One of these was a dynamite monopoly, which hindered the profits made by the Randlords (from around 1895, gold mining went deep level and dynamite was needed). Another issue that the uitlanders were unhappy about was the official language - Dutch. They only spoke English. To add to tensions, uitlanders were called up for commando duty against the Tswana chief, Malaboch, according to the Reader's Digest Illustrated History of South Africa. Tensions grew and talk of an uprising filled the dusty streets of Joburg - a revolt was brewing. "The purpose of the revolt was not necessarily to raise the flag of England over Pretoria, but rather to re-establish the republic along more liberal lines better suited to big business," says the Illustrated History of South Africa. Cecil John Rhodes, then prime minister of the Cape colony, sent money to his brother, Colonel Frank Rhodes, in Joburg, to purchase rifles and ammunition. A secret base camp was set up in Pitsani just across the border in the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana), and Dr Leander Starr Jameson was recruited to lead the revolt. He moved to Pitsani. Then, the Joburg stock market suddenly collapsed, and the raid came a step closer. Meanwhile, Kruger's agents were monitoring the situation closely. The Reform Committee, formed to organise the uprising, had supplied Jameson with some 400 well-armed men, saying in a letter that "thousands of unarmed men, women and children of our race will be at the mercy of well-armed Boers, while property of enormous value will be in great peril". The letter had been undated, with instructions by the committee to Jameson to date it when the time was right. A succession of telegrams passed between Rhodes and Jameson, and on 29 January, 1895, Jameson and his men left Pitsani and rode towards Johannesburg. But things went awry. Men who had been instructed to cut the telegraph wires to Pretoria cut the wrong lines, and the ZAR officials faithfully passed on the messages to Kruger. His men rode out to Krugersdorp and lay in waiting for the invading force. But he need not have worried - Jameson met the Boers at the Vlakfontein farmhouse in Doornkop. The two sides exchanged fire, with Jameson losing around 30 men, according to www.wikipedia.org. On 2 January, 1896, Jameson and his men were surrounded, and surrendered. The Illustrated History of South Africa says of Jameson that "by all accounts [he was] a competent doctor but a poor military tactician". Although there was a vague rumour that Jameson spent a night in the Florida Jail, it's not true - he ended up in Pretoria Jail. Besides, it's believed that the jail wasn't built in 1896, but probably shortly afterwards. A wooden cross was erected on the spot where he surrendered, in a confrontation that is also called the Battle of Doornkop. In 1913 it was replaced by a stone beacon, and later relocated to its present site near Kagiso township. In 1962 it was declared a national monument. These days it has been swallowed up by a squatter camp. 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