Hurling Pump

On the corner of Prince and Sir George Grey Streets is the last example of a Hurling pump erected in 1812. It was declared a National Monument in 1937. It was one of a series of wells that were installed as there was no household running water. Slaves would collect water for the household. The wells were part of an improved water scheme for the city designed by Sir John Cradock in 1812. Water was fed to these wells using wooden and iron pipes. 

This pump was built for the owner of the farm Zorgvliet, JF Hurling, in the 1790s.  Water was fed from the Platteklip Stream. The pumphouse was designed by Louis Michel Thibault, the French architect, who regularly worked together with the sculptor Anton Anreith who sculpted the lion’s head.

The pumps were worked manually by the slaves, also known as  Hurling pumps or swaai pumps introduced by Jan Frederik Hurling, a Swedish Colonist who arrived at the Cape in 1743. Slaves would swing the weighted handle from side to side which produced water from a pipe, often from the mouth of a bronze lion.

Public fountains brought water off the Mountain into the city, The fountains were generally placed in central areas, like on Grand Parade or Greenmarket Square.

 

 

 

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