Barkly West is a town in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, situated on the north bank of the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocean. ...

west of Kimberley.

Establishment and naming

Barkly West was the site of the first major

diamond rush A diamond rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area where diamonds were newly discovered. Major diamond rushes took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in South Africa and South-West Africa. Diamond rushes by chron ...

, in 1870, on the South African

Diamond Fields Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its ...

, and was initially known as ''Klip Drift'' (sometimes written as Klipdrift). This Dutch name means "stony ford" and is a direct translation from a much older !Kora or

Korana The Korana is a river in central Croatia and west Bosnia and Herzegovina. The river has a total length of and watershed area of . The river's name is derived from Proto-Indo-European ''*karr-'' 'rock'. It was recorded in the 13th century as '' ...

name, ''Ka-aub'' (or ''!a , aub'') - "stony (place along a) river". Briefly the Klipdrift Diggers' Republic was declared (the town assuming the name Parkerton after President

Stafford Parker Stafford Parker was a British artist, miner and the only President of the small and short-lived "Diggers Republic" on the diamond fields of southern Africa. Griqualand West and President of the Diggers Republic Originally an auctioneer and arti ...

), before colonial rule was extended here. It became, with Kimberley, one of the main towns in the Crown Colony of

Griqualand West Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, wh ...

and was renamed Barkly West (see the article on New Rush). Like

Barkly East Barkly East is a town in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, seat of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, and 117 km by road E.S.E. of Aliwal North, lying in the mountainous area just south of Lesotho. The town lies at the southern tip of t ...

, the town is named after

Sir Henry Barkly Sir Henry Barkly (24 February 1815 – 20 October 1898) was a British politician, colonial governor and patron of the sciences. Early life and education Born on 24 February 1815 at Highbury, Middlesex (now London), he was the eldest son of ...

, Governor of

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

and High Commissioner for Southern Africa from 1870 to 1877. During the

Anglo-Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

the town was occupied by Boer forces and temporarily went by the name Nieuw Boshof. Barkly West is sometimes erroneously spelled as "Barkley-West" (even in road signage). In Afrikaans the town is known as Barkly-Wes. The local municipality, post-1994, is called Dikgatlong, part of the

Frances Baard District Municipality Frances Baard (previously Diamantveld) is one of the 5 districts of Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of Frances Baard is Kimberley. The majority of its 324 814 people speak Setswana (2001 Census). The district code is DC9. Previ ...

Heritage sites

*The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin was the first Anglican Church to be built on the Diamond Fields. Sir Henry Barkly laid the foundation stone in February 1871. * Canteen Kopje is the site of early diamond diggings which also exposed a major archaeological occurrence of stratified

Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...

facies, subject to a current collaborative research venture by the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

, the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

and the

McGregor Museum The McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, originally known as the Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum, is a multidisciplinary museum which serves Kimberley and the Northern Cape, established in 1907. Overview Housed at first in a purpos ...

in Kimberley. * Barkly West Museum situated in the Toll House at the Barkly Bridge (see next). *The iron Barkly Bridge, the first over the Vaal River, was transported in sections from the United Kingdom (by sea, rail and, over the last more than 100 km by ox wagon) and erected across the Vaal in 1885. A steel plate gives details of its manufacture: " Westwood, Baillie & Co, Engineers and Contractors, London 1884."Ashley's Adventure Tours: Exploring Barkly West and the Diamond Fields
Shops in Kimberley and Barkly West closed for the occasion when the bridge was opened. A new bridge was built alongside in the 1970s. The toll house erected to recover revenues from those using the old bridge now serves as a museum, opened in 2000. * The

Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements The Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements comprise a geological feature between Kimberley and Barkly West, South Africa, pertaining to the Palaeozoic-age Dwyka Ice Age, or Karoo Ice Age, (some 300 million years ago) where the glacially scoured (smoothe ...

, upstream along the

between Barkly West and Kimberley, with evidence of the Dwyka glaciation some 300 million years ago. Much later - within the last 1500 years or so - the scoured rocks were used by Later Stone Age people as panels for rock engravings.

Notable residents

*Renowned writer Sarah Gertrude Millin grew up at Longlands outside Barkly West and her father opened the first shop in town. *

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...

held the seat of Barkly West in the House of Assembly of

until his death in 1902. * Z.K. Matthews (1901May 1968), prominent black academic who became a president of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

and assisted in the drafting of the

Freedom Charter The Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies: the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats ...

, was born at Winters Rush outside Barkly West. The new hospital is named after Professor Z.K. Matthews. * Mphashane Reginald Leeuw, from Barkly West, was instituted and installed as the Dean of Kimberley, 2015.

References

External links

Roger Webster speaks on the Barkly West Museum, the old bridge and other attractions in an interview with Ashley Bristow
{{Authority control Populated places established in 1869 Populated places in the Dikgatlong Local Municipality 1869 establishments in the Cape Colony

Establishment and naming

Heritage sites

Notable residents

See also

References

External links