Capturing a wide collection of the province’s treasured identity

HERE IS a list of the museums celebrated in the Cape Winelands and West Coast Museum Route brochure produced by the provincial Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.

SA Fisheries Museum, Velddrif displays the history of the net fishing industry on the West Coast and has a comprehensive exhibition on whales and the whaling industry. The museum also includes the history of Velddrif.

Exhibits include artefacts, photographs and models of trawlers, as well as stories about the sea and the sailors of the region.

De Villiers Street, Laaiplek. Open from Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 4pm and on Saturday from 10am to 1pm. Email: seaquiz@mweb.co.za

Entrance fee

Wheat Industry Museum, Moorreesburg explores the agricultural history of the wheat industry and farming through tools, equipment and farming processes. The museum is well known for “The Pink Lady”, a Ransome threshing machine used to harvest wheat. A unique interactive exhibition portrays how the town looked in different periods. The museum is one of only three “wheat museums” in the world.

134 Main Street, Moorreesburg. Open from Monday to Thursday from 8am to 4.30pm and on Friday from 8am to 4pm. Email: kormuseum@wcaccess.co.za

Entrance fee

Jan Danckaert Museum, Porterville is named after the leader of the first Dutch expedition to this area. The museum (in a building dating to 1879, and initially used as a court and a prison) hosts a permanent exhibition of ancient San rock paintings and artefacts from the Groot Winterhoek mountains and surrounds. The museum has also reconstructed a classroom from the first school in Porterville called 24 Riveren Primary.

There is also a collection of coaches, carts and carriages.

Corner of Mark and Piet Retief streets, Porterville. Open on weekdays from 9am to 4pm, and on Saturday from 9am to 1pm. Email: jdmuseum@telkomsa.net

Stellenbosch Museum consists of various buildings spread throughout the town, including four 18th century homes, the VOC Arsenal (Kruithuis) and the Toy and Miniature Museum. Exhibitions reflect a history spanning archaeological to colonial-era research. The restored buildings and gardens themselves reflecting key aspects of the architectural and domestic history of the town, which was founded in 1697. The Toy and Miniature Museum is regarded as “an enchantment”, boasting among other things, a detailed and lifelike miniature of the Blue Train.

Open from Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm and on Sunday, between May and August, from 10am to 1pm, and between September and April, from 10am to 4pm. Email: manager@stelmus.co.za Web: www.stelmus.co.za

Entrance fee

Huguenot Memorial Museum in Franschhoek depicts the impact of the arrival of the French Huguenots at the Cape between 1688 – after the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, forbidding French Protestants from practising their religion – and 1720. There is also a more recently built Annex across the road, in which exhibitions on local history and the descendants of Huguenot families are displayed. The Huguenots played a critical role in developing South Africa’s wine industry. There are also exhibits on fynbos, Khoisan history and the local fruit industry.

Lambrecht Street, Franschhoek. Open from Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm, and on Sunday from 2pm to 5pm. Email: admin@museum.co.za

Entrance fee

Paarl Museum has many historical and cultural exhibits depicting the history of the Paarl Valley, spanning early local history to contemporary Paarl. A large part of the museum collection is made up of Cape antiques and artefacts that portray the rich cultural diversity and development of Paarl. The museum itself is situated on a section of the farm originally granted to Pieter Janz van Marseveen by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel on February 8, 1699.

The museum has a permanent collection of Cape antiques (including furniture and silverware) and artefacts, documents and photographs reflecting the cultural diversity and development of the town.

303 Main Street, Paarl. Open on weekdays from 9am to 4pm and on Saturday from 9am to 1pm. E-mail: paarlmuseum@telkomsa.net

Entrance fee

Wellington Museum tells the story of the rich heritage of this small town, displaying exhibitions on local history, including that of the indigenous people.

Collections include Stone Age artefacts, traditional ethnic tools, musical instruments and jewellery of the Sotho and Tswana among others, a unique collection of Egyptian artefacts dating to the reign of King Akhenaten (± 1375 BC), and exhibitions reflecting Dutch, Huguenot and colonial-era influences and pioneering figures.

Among these is road-building pioneer (and fossil collector) Andrew Geddes Bain, who created Bain’s Kloof Pass, the first road to the interior across the Limiet Mountains, and missionary Andrew Murray, who revolutionised education for girls through the establishment of the Huguenot Seminary.

Corner of College and Church streets, Wellington. Open on weekdays from 8am to 4pm. E-mail: welmus@telkomsa.net Web: www.wellingtonmuseum.co.za

Entrance fee

Worcester Museum The main attraction of the Worcester Museum is the open-air museum with its live farm animals.

Robertson Road, Worcester. Open on weekdays from 8am to 4pm and on Saturday from 8am to 1pm. E-mail: Francois.Fouche@westerncape.gov.za

Entrance fee Togryers Museum, Ceres The name, “Togryers”, meaning transport riders, stems from the huge influence of transport riders of the 1900s on the development of Ceres. The completion of Michell’s Pass in 1848 made the town accessible to wagons, and one of the main routes to the diamond fields in Kimberley went through Ceres.

8 Oranje Street, Ceres. Open on weekdays from 8.30am to 5pm, and on Sundays and public holidays from 9am to noon. E-mail: togryersmuseum@gmail. com Web: www.ceresmuseum.co.za

Entrance fee is charged

Oude Kerk Volksmuseum, Tulbagh is one of the last churches where cruciform architecture is still intact. It was built in 1743 by the VOC (Dutch East India Company). It houses a unique collection of furniture and artefacts from the Dutch period and is adjacent to the historic cemetery. The museum complex consists of four historic buildings: De Oude Kerk, Victorian Period House, Cape Dutch Pioneer House and the Earthquake Museum (about the 1969 earthquake that extensively damaged the town). 4 Church Street, Tulbagh Open on weekdays from 9am to 5pm, on Saturday from 9am to 3pm, and Sunday from 11am to 3pm. E-mail: Shurine. vanNiekerk@westerncape.gov.za

Entrance fee

Montagu Museum consists of three buildings, the 110-year-old Old Mission Church (1907), Joubert House (1983) and the KWV Building. Attractions include the Indigenous Medicinal Plant research project, the Francoise Krige collection of paintings and the TO Honiball collection of cartoons. 41 Long Street, Montagu Open on weekdays: from 9am to 4.30pm, and on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to noon. E-mail: mmuseum@ telkomsa.net

Entrance fee

Andrew Geddes Bain