Part 12 in our William Hills series: The journey to Krugersdorp
It took about 90 minutes to reach Krugersdorp, with stops.
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The final stage of William Hills’s 1897 journey from Port Elizabeth to Krugersdorp was in a string of massive iron boxes on wheels.
These were apparently imported directly from Holland for the Zuid Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij, generally known as the Netherlands Railway, or as the Rand tram, Hills wrote in 1940 in the story of his life as a journalist.
“These coaches were about half the length of our present coaches and were so high from the platforms, which were only raised about nine inches from the ground, that a flight of steps had to be negotiated on entering.
“The guard blew on a little trumpet and off we went at the dizzy speed of about 12 miles an hour.”
It took about 90 minutes to reach Krugersdorp, with stops.
“A road – at least it was supposed to be a road – inches deep in dust led down the hill into Krugersdorp town, and as the cabbies engaged in chariot races the fares were smothered in dust for the cabs were open and only closed with curtains when it rained.
“I looked around me and tried to realise I was in South Africa for this was my first experience of a gold mining camp, or rather township, at first hand. It looked to me much more like a novelist’s dream of Roaring Gulch.”
Hills reported at the Krugersdorp Times office then set out in search of accommodation, renting a room at the Central Hotel for £10 a month. The room turned out to be an iron and wood structure in the backyard of an adjacent house.
“My first meal proved that whatever else I might find Krugersdorp to be, it would never be dull.
What a babble of voices. The dining room was packed with miners; not the type of miners we see today, but Cousin Jacks, Geordies, miners from the States, from Australia, and from sundry European countries.
“They all had one point in common: they could eat. The fare was plentiful if rough. Despite the distance from the coast and the inroads of the various customs, quite a lot of the food had arrived in tins and it required a liberal education to discover the country of origin. Even the butter, a rich yellow, was tinned and had come from Holland.”
Next time: Miners, miners everywhere in the wild, west Krugersdorp
(Article: Carol Stier)
Related Stories:
- Article 6 on William Hills: Hills meets Cecil John Rhodes after the Jameson Raid
- Part 10 in our William Hills series: Hills experiences ‘anxious moments’ at Vereeniging
