Willingale Farm, South Africa
Roy Dudley Willingale has kindly provided some background
on Willingale farm:
My aunt Dorothy E Willingale went to South Africa after WW1.
She married a chap called Turner-a South African. They had three children,
Sidney Vera and Beryl. Beryl is still very much alive and kicking. After
serving in WW2 Sidney bought two square miles of land in the Eastern
Transvaal. That was and is Willingale Farm. A lovely spot quite hilly so
the main crop was trees but there is a flat section at the bottom where
fruit trees grew. There is a river flowing thru the bottom bit. The farm
is now owned by Beryl's eldest son and I assume he farms it the same way.
Also the current owner, Garth Bernard Schwikkard, has left some info in our old guestbook.
Hi I am the son of Beryl (nee Turner) daughter of Dorothy(nee Willingale). I am the current owner of the farm 'Willingale' in South Africa listed on your web site. The farm is 326km east from our house of Johannesburg and it takes about 3 and a half hours to drive there. We visit there once a month for a weekend.On the farm we have about 150 ha (375acres)of timber. The main timber grown is Eucalyptus used in mining as mineshaft supports and for thatch roofs. We also grow pine used for paper and planks. We have approximately 10ha of flat land with 1km of clean mountain river frontage. On the flat section we have a Trout Dam stocked with Rainbow Trout of about 1 acre in area. There are also about 10acres of Pecan nut trees. Unfortunately because we dont live there most of the nuts are eaten by the Vervet Monkeys who shake the trees so that the nuts fall to the ground which are then eaten by the wild pig and variuos species of buck. We used to have Avocado Pears but with the climate change ,the frost we get every year has killed all the trees. We have a house which was built by my mothers brother Sydney George Harry Turner in the 1960's on a very limited budget and with a lot of help from family and friends. It is built out of Slasto(a type of slate) quarried on the farm and transported by Ox Sleigh across the rough terrain about 3 km to the construction site. The walls of the house are therefore an adventure in themselves filled with fossilised plants and subject to much scrutiny. We also have a Guest cottage with a thatch roof.The farm is 40km east of Nelspruit and 70 km from the nearest gate into the Kruger National Park on the southern end. We fortunately do not have Malaria on the farm. Should you be interested in more information or photographs please feel free to contact me.
(Dorothy was a sister to your webmasters Grt Grandfather) |
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