Page 103 - Bulletin 14 2010

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To conclude: three different sets of milestones were erected at different times – roughly 30 years
apart – along the two main roads leading out of Cape Town. The passage of time saw a reduction

in size and mass, simplification of information, and possibly the use of manufactured materials,
all of which made for greater economy in their production and greater ease of handling.

The location and fate of the milestones

A map known as the Cape Flats Topocadastral Series, scale 1: 6500 ± of 1897, shows the location
of all extant milestones some 110 years ago. The statute miles were measured from the Town

House (the seat of municipal government) on Greenmarket Square, and the site of each milestone
was marked by a small triangle with associated Roman numerals, and sometimes the word

Milestone. (Railway milestones were also shown and should not be confused with the road

stones.) It seems that odd-numbered ones stood on the west side of the road, and even-numbered
ones on the east side. Of the probable 24 milestones erected between the Town House and

Simon’s Town, 15 were still standing in 1897, but only 9 survive in situ today. The original

locality of each is listed in Table 3.2 and shown on Fig. 3.3.

During the past 50 years there have been outbursts of interest in their protection, starting with the
South African National Society in 1957, and followed by Ward 17 Cllr. Malcolm Parker and a

schoolboy, Peter Day, in 1964. In 1976 the National Monuments Council took a formal decision
to request the Minister of Education to have all of them declared National Monuments, but this

was not achieved. However, Milestone XII at Bellville, together with an old municipal street

lamp (oil), was so proclaimed by Minister of Education, F. W. de Klerk, in 1986.

A number of surveys of their location and condition are on record: Fullalove (1976), City
Engineer’s Dept. (1979), City Architectural Branch (1981-82), and the NMC (1992). City

Council Engineer Dr S. S. Morris, and his successor Mr Jan Brand, ensured that the locations of
all extant stones were plotted on maps and that care was exercised when roadworks were

undertaken nearby. Mr Ernest Middlemiss, Secretary of the Cape Divisional Council, took a keen