The story of the ox wagon wheel in Lady Grey

Back in September 2011 The famous BMWMCCC East Cape Tour made it's last-but-one overnight stop in the small East Cape town of Lady Grey.

In the bike park, leaning against a pepper tree was this large wagon wheel in very good repair.

It had a toothed ring on the inside boss.

Painted red to look good.

 The owners could offer no further help.

When asked, they merely stared vacantly back at me like a cow over a gate.

Okay, wrong number.

So I asked our farmer, earth mover, engineer boys on the trip with us.

We all agreed the toothed wheel was a rear wheel and the teeth were to allow the wheel to turn one way but not the other.

But was it a left wheel or right wheel?

Some suggested it was the spare and could be on either L or R.

But what would a drover want to do most of? Stop the wagon rolling backwards or to stop it rolling forwards??

a pawl hinged to the main frame would be dropped into the teeth when needed and then stop the wheel going the wrong way.

The real question we never could answer was:....

Was it to stop a wagon rolling backwards or forwards.

Were there one on each side L & R? or just on one wheel and it can be interchanged.

We left it all open after a good bit of discussion with inconclusive results.

However it never left me.

I sent the photos around to people who supposedly may offer something but no one has had this thrown at them so not much thought or knowledge is on hand on this arb subject.

It seems ox wagons is a lost subject in our fast, instant access world of 2011.

or so I thought.........................

3 months have gone by and I took a 4000km+ road trip on my RT up to a wedding in Gauteng and then a pilgrimage of museums Annie does not have patience for, on the way back. Boer war graves, military amour museums, off the track towns, steam engines, delving into history a bit. Lonely planet type of stuff you do on your own.

She meantime flew on to LA on her own pilgrimage as mothers do when they miss their pregnant daughters.

And within one day all was answered, some in site visits, but most in a serendipitous meeting over drinks in Ronnies Sex Shop on the R62.

So.

Rewind to Friday morning St Dingaan's Day 16th December 2011, riding South on the N9, 33km passed Middelburg in the Northern Cape, about to enter the Eastern Cape.

Shortly before the lovely Lootsburg Pass and the Fouche bridge is the farm Ventershoek and the now defunct railway station of Jagdpoort. .

There is a trading post/farm stall at Ventershoek.

In the front is this ox wagon.

Meitjie says the 'baas' fetched it recently from Jefferies Bay where his friend had bought the shopping centre where this wagon was  a delapidated display.

Ox Wagon at Ventershoek

inspection showed the pawl on the front of the after carriage- main beam. this is the left wheel, pawl engaged.

The gear is obviously to stop a wagon rolling back.

The pawl facing forward rusted above its cradle right hand side, pawl lifted.

I stopped at many such wagons from there on, logging them on my GPS and slowly the bug was seeding to actually build one from original design someday.

I had time to mull this new information over, amongst dodging oncoming traffic in my lane, cars that pulled out from the middle of a queue sans looking behind and almost pushing me into the right shoulder etc etc, normal SA traffic when every soul is hell bent in being the first person in the Southern Cape on St. Dingaan's Day, 16th December 2011.

This one in Calitzdorp has square cut teeth

Then after many wagons, many miles, many towns later I stopped for a beer at Ronnies.

As ones does on a summers day at a bush pub, I was taking in all the splendid eye candy on display, developing uncharitable thoughts as nubile woman in skimpy summer clothing bent over tables or just thronged around with their families.

Raymond from Lynn Schroder at George was sitting with me equally bemused and admiring the wild life and we got chatting.

I took a long shot and asked him the wheel question.

Imagine my total surprise when he gave me the real McCoy chapter and verse with graphic designs and all.

Ray had just been to a presentation by Theuns Botha in the Wilderness about the opening of the old ox wagon trails and a talk on the famous Kaaimans crossing.

You gotta read Romance of Cape Mountain Passes (9780864866639): Graham Ross to learn about all this.

They had listened to the real old Khoi fathers who had been there at the time and learnt all about the days of exploration.

Other 'kenners' had explained the art of wagon making.

The teeth were all hand cut.

In fact blacksmiths made wagons and no metal was machined.

All hand crafted and forged on an anvil and a fire.

on a downgrade slope, the oxen can hanker down and lean back into the traces and thus, with the rear brake turned up, could manage a downward slope going forwards.

Going uphill was in fits and starts.

The handler walking alongside would crack the whip and the oxen surge forward, then stop. the pawls would drop into a tooth and lock the wheel from slipping backwards down the hill.

On the next whip crack, the oxen would brace and lunge again.

Progress up steep inclines would have been frought with tension, the energy palpable and the air loud with whip cracks, shouts, and bellowing oxen, lots of dust kicked up and all the passengers shouldering the load by pushing from behind and to the side. heavy baggage left on the trail meantime. Kiddies watching from a distance careful not to get in the way or catch their dad or uncles' eye.

On level ground, the pawl would be lifted to lie in a cradle.

I found out how easy and quick it is to dismantle an ox wagon for portage over rough ground it could not  roll on or rivers too deep to drag.

within half an hour all four wheels, fore and after carriages, deck and linkages were each separate items that two persons could handle .

Once past the obstacle, the wagon could be reassembled and reloaded, oxen spanned in and off again.

My note: So if you see a wagon with leaf spring suspension it is one built/modified after circa 1835 and the advent of Sir Thomas & Andrew Baines' roads and passes. An not a pioneering wagon.

I learned many things about wagons over two beers at Ronnies.

And we rode on together in good company.

Now my plan to build one the way they did in 1760 is kindling and I will need to find Theuns in Knysna to get more info.......

So our wheel in Lady Grey is a right rear wheel.

 En daar het jy dit.

Interesant nê

QED