Cape Town’s old milestones.

 

These milestones were placed when the now M4, which runs from the City to Simon’s Town, was declared a main road in 1844.

The distances were measured in miles from the Town House, which was completed in 1755.

The St. James stone was the first stone that I noticed, when it was pointed out to us by my dad while driving to Kalk Bay. I was in primary school at at the time.

In 1980, when I started school at South Peninsula High, I used to walk from Wynberg in the summertime when I was early, or when the trains were delayed. This is when I came across the Plumstead stone outside the then Southern Timbers, now the Checkers store.

Years later I came across the stone in Tokai (where the KFC is now), and then even later on, the stone in Kenilworth (opposite the Caltex fuel station).

I always wondered if there were more of these stones in existence, and kept my eyes peeled when I drove along the main road.

Then late in 2013, on the same trip, I discovered the Lakeside stone (diagonally opposite the fire station) as well as the Kirstenhof stone (near the traffic lights at Steenberg road).

I went on to search the net to see what came up, and all that I could find was a good colour photo of the Rondebosch stone, but no information.

So I set out to locate the stone, and found it, however the current position differs from that on the internet photo.

After the first publication of this blog, Sigi Howes picked up that the Wynberg one was not mentioned. She went on to point out the position for us, (opposite the Wynberg Pharmacy). Thank you Sigi.

Because of development, the Claremont (vi mile) was obviously removed. This is probably the case with most of the other stones as well.

I wonder if there are any sitting in a museum, or in some garden for that matter.

The rock I believe was sourced at the quarry on the city side of High Level road, east of  the Bo Kaap.

Sadly, some of them have been vandalized, and my view is that all these existing stones should be removed, and put on display in a museum, in order to preserve them for our future generations. They should then be replaced with replicas, and all the original sites could also be included. They could become tourist attractions.

Rondebosch stone V miles

Kenilworth stone VII miles

Wynberg IIIV miles

Plumstead IX  miles

Tokai XII miles

Kirstenhof XIII miles

Lakeside XV miles

St. James XVI miles

Kalk Bay XVII miles (replica)

 

Pics by me.

If any of you are aware of more such stones along the main road, please let me know,via the box below.

Thank you.

Be out and be safe.

Michael.