Drakenstein Heemkring

The Drakenstein Heemkring was established in 1977 by a group of volunteers to preserve the cultural history of the Drakenstein valley. This valley in the centre of the Cape’s wine growing region is less than an hour’s drive from Cape Town and includes the towns Wellington, Paarl, Simondium and Franschhoek.

The archive is housed in the historic De Oude Woning on the corner of Main and Auret Streets in Paarl. De Oude Woning was built in 1784 by SP Jordaan who used it as a butchery.The Heemkring’s collection includes photographs, manuscripts, books, oral history recordings, genealogical records and newspaper clippings.

The Heemkring also produces various publications. Drakenstein Erfgrond is a series on the history of local farms and their succession of owners from the late 17th century to the mid 19th century.

The Drakenstein Heemkring was established in 1977 by a group of volunteers to preserve the cultural history of the Drakenstein valley. This valley in the centre of the Cape’s wine growing region is less than an hour’s drive from Cape Town and includes the towns Wellington, Paarl, Simondium and Franschhoek.

The archive is housed in the historic De Oude Woning on the corner of Main and Auret Streets in Paarl. De Oude Woning was built in 1784 by SP Jordaan who used it as a butchery.The Heemkring’s collection includes photographs, manuscripts, books, oral history recordings, genealogical records and newspaper clippings.

The Heemkring also produces various publications. Drakenstein Erfgrond is a series on the history of local farms and their succession of owners from the late 17th century to the mid 19th century.

The Drakenstein Heemkring’s Gribble Collection includes the works of two generations of Gribble photographers, as well as the works of the James Gogh, GA Decker and Geo Bell who also owned photographic studios in Paarl during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

This collection provides a valuable social and visual record of people at work, women washing laundry on the banks of the Berg River, workers assembling wagons, masons quarrying granite and labourers threshing wheat.

The photographs of street scenes and landscapes provide us today with an important record of historic buildings and the visual landscapes of Paarl and its surrounding towns.

The collection also includes a number of photographs of towns in the Northern Cape, Karoo and Overberg taken on one of Gribble’s many journeys into the interior.