Hanover

Hanover in the Northern Province is a convenient stopover be

Hanover, a small town in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, is named after Hanover in Germany. The town was established in 1854. Much of the farming in the area surrounding Hanover is with Merino sheep.

Hanover claims to be the countrys most central place. It is equidistant from Cape Town and Johannesburg, centrally positioned between Cape Town and Durban as well as Port Elizabeth and Upington and it is the hub of an arc formed by Richmond, Middelburg and Colesberg.

Historic figures were at the centre of life here in Hanover, people like Olive Schreiner, author and womens rights champion, and the tempestuous Rev. Thomas Francois Burgers. Among its residents were the wealthy and eccentric. Hanovers chief constable was the grandson of Lord Charles Somerset, the magistrates clerk a son of Dean Vaughan of Llandaff, well-known churchman and devotional writer of his day, and the local doctor was the son of a former Solicitor-General of Jamaica.

Well-known people of today hailing from Hanover includes Zwelinzima Vavi, the General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

A stopover in Hanover provides an opportunity of experiencing the timeless atmosphere of a typical Karoo dorp from a bygone era. The town was established in 1854 on land bought from a farmer called Gous, who requested that the town be called Hanover after his ancestor’s hometown in Germany. The first magistrate, CR Beere, appointed in 1876, laid out the building lots around the Dutch Reformed Church and planted trees alongside the streets. Prospective builders were instructed to build their houses directly on and parallel to the edge of the road, with the gardens at the back. Later, when people wanted to build stoeps, they were allowed to have them encroach on the road, a privilege for which they paid a special tax of one shilling per year. Owners still pay this tax today. Hanover, perhaps more than any other Karoo town, still has an old world atmosphere and charm, where you won’t find many tarred roads and the imposing church is still the biggest building. There is peace and quiet, little traffic and the people are friendly and helpful.

GENERAL INFORMATION

How to get there

Colesberg 74 km, Richmond 61 km, Bloemfontein 300 km, Beaufort West 244 km

HISTORICAL VIEW

Cenotaph

Memorial to those who died during the Second World War

Hanover Museum

Exhibits date back to the town’s pioneering days

Olive Schreiner House

This well known South African author lived here during the Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902) in a typical iron roofed, single storey Karoo house with a stoep

ATTRACTIONS

Angora Handcrafts

Home crafts, homemade preserves and biscuits

Die Oog (‘The Eye’)

Die Oog, located just outside town on the Middelburg road, is the spring from which the town gets it’s water supply. The spring has never been known to fail.

Trappies Kop

One of the features of town is Trappies Kop, so named because of the series of steps leading to the top from which one gets a good view of the town and it’s surroundings.

Tours

Sheepskin and leather articles and shoes

ACTIVITIES

Hunting

Accommodation in and around Hanover