De Doorns

De Doorns

De Doorns
De Doorns
De Doorns
De Doorns

 De Doorns shown within Western Cape

Coordinates: 33°29′S 19°41′E / 33.483°S 19.683°E / -33.483; 19.683Coordinates: 33°29′S 19°41′E / 33.483°S 19.683°E / -33.483; 19.683
Country South Africa
Province Western Cape
District Cape Winelands
Municipality Breede Valley
Government
 • Councillor Daniel Teswin Willemse
Area[1]
 • Total 7.6 km2 (2.9 sq mi)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Total 11,278
 • Density 1,500/km2 (3,800/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)[1]
 • Black African 40.0%
 • Coloured 51.5%
 • Indian/Asian 0.6%
 • White 6.0%
 • Other 1.9%
First languages (2011)[1]
 • Afrikaans 64.0%
 • Xhosa 25.2%
 • Sotho 3.7%
 • English 2.5%
 • Other 4.5%
Postal code (street) 6875
PO box 6875
Area code 023

De Doorns is a town in Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Location

It lies in the Hex River Valley, 32 km north-east of Worcester and 40 km south-west of Touwsrivier. It is in the centre of an export grape growing region, surrounded by over 200 table grape farms.

History

The town takes its name from the farm "De Doorns boven aan de Hex Rivier" (‘the thorns on the upper Hex River’), known as early as 1725. The area was declared a sub-drosty of Tulbagh in 1819 and the farm became the seat of the area's own drosty in 1822.

The De Doorns farm was bought by the government of Cape Prime Minister John Molteno in 1875, to build a railway station for the rapidly expanding Cape Government Railways. The line was immediately built through De Doorns, connecting it to Cape Town on the coast and reaching Montagu Road(later Touws River) in 1877, on its way to Kimberley. Around the station, the hamlet of De Doorns would later develop.[2][3]

A village management board was instituted for De Doorns in 1933 and municipal status attained in 1951.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sum of the Main Places De Doorns, Hassie Square and Ekupumeleni from Census 2011.
  2. ↑ C. Schoeman: The Historical Karoo: Traces of the Past in South Africa's Arid Interior. Penguin Random House South Africa. ISBN 1770225684
  3. ↑ Burman, Jose (1984), Early Railways at the Cape. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau. ISBN 0-7981-1760-5
  4. ↑ "Dictionary of Southern African Place Names (Public Domain)". Human Science Research Council. p. 132.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.