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Date: 1828 Type: Mill Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 34°35'36.51" S 19°45'39.22" E Alt: 45m

See more photographs This is the oldest extant watermill in working order and still in daily use in South Africa. The mill's original wooden machinery was replaced with iron machinery in 1881 manufactured by 'I ZIMMERMANN, DANZIG, DEUTSCHLAND'. It, with the entire Elim Moravian Mission precinct, is was declared a National Monument in 1975 and is now a Provincial Heritage Site. [A series of black-and-white photographs taken by Brian MANSERGH makes it evident that he did a photo-documentary trip of the Overberg vernacular in 1957, including a series of the town of Elim, from whence these images originate]. References: Fransen, Hans. 2004. The old buildings of the Cape. A survey of extant architecture from before c1910 in the area of Cape Town - Calvinia - Colesberg - Uitenhage. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pg 449 Howard, Leslie & Phillips, Keith. 2004. Overberg tapestry. Helderberg: Keith Phillips Images. pg 49 Picton-Seymour, Désirée. 1989. Historical Buildings in South Africa. Cape Town: Struikhof Publishers. pg 79 ill Staples, Chester O. 2006. Mills of Southern Africa : water, wind and horse. Pretoria: Umdaus. pg 9, 36-37, 192, 205 Walton, James. 1974. Water-mills windmills and horse-mills of South Africa. Cape Town and Johannesburg: C Struik Publishers. pg 49