History Webs
For the Drakenstein Valley
Oral history
Eyewitness account of artisans working in a wagon factor - interview with I de Villiers Blignaut; or read about Callie Theron's recollections of his grandfather's wagon building workshop in Wellington.
Wagon museum
References
* Die Paarl, WA Joubert, Paarl Drukpers, copy at the Drakenstein Heemkring; * Rytuie van weleer, Jacques Malan, Van Schaik, 1981. Copy at the Drakenstein Heemkring. * Die tradisionele wamakersbedryf in Suid-Afrika met spesifieke verwysing na die Paarl, Hennie van der Merwe, University of Stellenbosch, 1983, copy at the Drakenstein Heemkring
Street names
Many streets in Paarl's CBD have names associated with the town's once thriving wagon building industry: Fabriek Street, Derksen Street, Jan Phillips Square, Wamakers Square to name a few.
Photographs
View some of the wagons built by Retief, De Ville & Co; J Phillips & Co; AJ Bester & Co; FJ Retief & Co; Thom & Verster; Fechter & Philips and F Starck & Sons. The photographs are from the Drakenstein Heemkring's Gribble Collection
JF Phillips
JF Phillips started his wagon building business in 1881 in a friend's backyard in Lady Grey Street, Paarl. He was born in Ceres in 1860 and moved to Paarl in 1881. By 1894 his business was large enough to open a factory on the corner of Lady Grey and Fabriek Streets. JF Phillips & Co became the largest factory in South Africa when in amalgamated with Retief, De Ville & Co in the 1920s.
Wagon baron
PH de Ville was one of Paarl's "wagon barons". He started his company in 1879, and in an editorial published in the Patriot on 19 January 1883 PH de Ville & Co's wagon factory, Berg Rivier Werke, was described as a sprawling complex of between 10 and 12 buildings. Five years later the same newspaper reported that the company was the largest in South Africa. By that time PB de Ville was also a director of Paarl Bank. He sold the company to JP Retief in 1894, then started another company in 1896, and was bankrupt by 1904.
Paarl's wagon building industry
Paarl's wagon industry
started
as small one-man businesses
employing one or two labourers. Everything was hand made and most of
the businesses were in the area known as Droë Riem or Business
Street -
today's Orange Street. These artisans specialised
in particular
aspects of the trade: some were wheelwrights, others painters,
carpenters or harness makers. Many such as Ali Moerat where of Malay
descent.
During the latter half of the 1800s the
workshops became more
mechanised, using steam engines, some expanded into factories employing
hundreds of labourers and craftsmen. The industry matured from small
craft workships in Orange Street to factories in Lady Grey Street and
Fabriek Street. Central Paarl still has a square called Wamakersplein.
This boom in the industry was
stimulated by the expanding diamond and gold mining industries, the the
South African War, and World War I. The boom was short lived, and by
the end of the 1920s competiion from motorised transport all but killed
the industry, and most of the factories were forced to close down.
The wagon builders
Some of Paarl's
better known wagon builders were: Pieter
Bernardus de Ville (PB, also known as Piet Wakkermuis); JP Retief (also
called Ryk Koos), with a factory on Wamakersplein off Fabriek Street;
JF Phillips & Co, corner of Lady Grey and Fabriek Streets; Thom
& Verster in Lady Grey Street; CGE Starke on the corner of Main
and Hospital Streets; Weintrob, Huguenot Carriage Works, Eiland Street;
Wahl in Main Street; Dickson, corner of Nantes and Commercial Streets;
Gibbons on Main Street; Franke, in Dwars-in-die-Weg, near the present
day library; De Kock, on the corner of Cecelia and Main Streets; Page
in Main Street; Domingo near the Page factor in Main Street; and Latief
in Breda Street.
The industry attracted many carpenters,
painters and
blacksmiths. Melt van der Spuy had a joinery shop on the corner of Main
and Olyven Streets; Jan Derksen owned a paint shop on the corner of
Malherbe and Derksen Streets; and Ali Moerat had a workshop in Orange
Street.