Loxton is a town in the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

region of South Africa's

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. Within the Ubuntu Local Municipality of the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality It is in one of the major wool-producing and one of the largest garlic-producing areas in South Africa. With a population of 1,053 in 2011, the area is quiet and sparsely populated. Afrikaans is the most widely spoken language in the town.Loxton. Census 2011. Accessed 22 June 2017.
/ref>

History

Loxton was originally a farm called Phizantefontein, which was owned by A.E. Loxton, whom the town is named after. The farm was bought from him in 1899 by the Dutch Reformed Church for £7,500 so as to establish a parish for local farmers. The town is believed to have been named after A.E Loxton due to a £50 donation he made to fund the salary of the town's first Dutch Reformed Church minister. The town's first church building and schoolhouse was built in 1900. Tree-lined streets and flood irrigation channels that run alongside the town's main roads were completed in the same year. The town became a municipality in 1905 as it developed to serve the region's sheep-farming community. The church that stands in the town's centre was constructed in 1924. Most of the small town was destroyed by a

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing o ...

that caused the town's dam to burst in March 1961. The town has since recovered from the disaster.

Architecture

The farms surrounding Loxton are characterised by beehive-shaped

Corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led Houses that have roofs with no supporting roof beams and structures built using local stone.Loxton, Upper Karoo. South Africa Explored. Accessed 22 June 2017.
/ref> They were first built around 1811 by the Trekboers, nomadic farmers who descended from European settlers. They used the local stone to build their homes due to a lack of other building materials. The oldest building in the town is a redundant power station, which was originally a horse stable on what was then the Phizantefontein farm. Even after years of being unoccupied, many of the buildings have been restored and still stand over 100 years after they were first built, as examples of typical vernacular Karoo architecture. Throughout the town are various styles of corrugated iron roofs such as the smooth, round-edged bullnose, the curved ogee and the concave roof. Several Loxton buildings are also characterised by diamond windows on end walls, pedimented walls, classical pillars and

balusters A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...

. Some of the old buildings also feature strong wooden shutters and

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

Notable people

* Ena Murray (1936-2015), Afrikaans language novelist and writer. * Beyers Naudé (1915-2004), theologian and anti-apartheid activist. *

Annelise Vorster Anneliese (, ) is a female given name of either German, Dutch or Nordic origin. It is a compound form of "Anna" and "Liese", a short form of "Elisabeth". It may refer to: *Anneliese Bauer, East German slalom canoer who competed in the late 1950s ...

, Landscape and portrait artist. *

Deon Meyer Deon Godfrey Meyer is a South African thriller novelist, writing in Afrikaans. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. He has also written numerous scripts for television and film. Life and career Meyer was born on 4 July 1 ...

, novelist.

Notes

External links

Tourism website

{{Authority control Populated places in the Ubuntu Local Municipality Karoo Populated places established in 1905 1905 establishments in the Cape Colony