Old towns and villages of the Cape by Hans Fransen

ISBN: 9781868426034

Jonathan Ball Publishers SA, October 2013

Paperback, 368 pages

Old Towns and Villages of the Cape is the first comprehensive study of the physical history of the older towns of the former 'Cape Colony'. It contains over seven hundred illustrations, including hundreds of previously unpublished pioneer photographs and early watercolours. Many detailed aerial photographs, few of them ever seen in print, some dating back to the 1930s, allow the reader to step back in time and view the original towns before modern developments brought about irrevocable changes in the townscape. Covering almost one hundred towns, villages and hamlets, Old Towns and Villages of the Cape not only examines the role of surveyors, and other factors, in their initial layout and subsequent growth, but also describes the formation of new drostdy districts likr Swellendam, Graaf-Reinet and Worcester, of new Dutch Reformed church congregations like Tulbagh and Robertson, of boeredorpe like Montagu and Calitzdorp,  of harbour settlements like Simon's Town and Mossel Bay, of mission towns like Genadendal and Mamre. The well known author, Hans Fransen, applies his extensive knowledge and insight to present the information, research and insights, most of it previously unpublished, in a very readable and accessible style. With its rich pictorial component, this invaluable reference book it is as attractive as it is informative and fits as well on a coffee-table as it would in a collector's library.