Witkop Blockhouse
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ossewa
S 26° 28.070 E 028° 04.175
35J E 606616 N 7072061
The Witkop Blockhouse was declared a national monument in 1948 and is one of the last fifty left in our country.
Waymark Code: WMH52J
Location: Gauteng, South Africa
Date Posted: 05/24/2013
Views: 5
The Witkop Blockhouse is a very distinctive design which was found along the railway line from Vereeniging to Elandsfontein (Germiston) now represented solely by the Witkop Blockhouse. A most unusual feature of this type of blockhouse is a pair of angle bastions at diagonally opposite corners, which were designed to provide for the flanking fire along the walls, similar to the function of Machouli galleries on other patterns, but at ground level. This blockhouse was a two level structure with a lookout tower. The Witkop Blockhouse was declared a national monument in 1948 and is one of the last fifty left in our country.
In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery.
During the Second Boer War the British forces built a large number of fortifications in South Africa. Around 441 were solid masonry blockhouses, many of which stand today. A range of designs were used in the construction of these blockhouses, but most were either two or three story structures built using locally quarried stone.
However the vast scale of British strategy led the British to develop cheaper, double-skinned corrugated iron structures. These could be prefabricated, delivered to site by armoured train, and then have locally sourced rocks or rubble packed inside the double skin to provide improved protection.
A circular design developed by Major Rice in February 1901 had good all round visibility, and the lack of corners did away with the need for a substructure. Failure due to wood rot and splintering when hit by bullets or shrapnel were eliminated. The steel door to the blockhouse was sheltered by another piece of corrugated iron. The Major Rice blockhouse could be erected in six hours by six trained men. With the change from square gabled roofs to a circular design, they were given the nickname “Pepperpot" blockhouse. With mass production the cost to build a blockhouse dropped down to £16, compared to several hundred pounds for masonry ones.
These blockhouses played a vital role in the protection of the railway lines and bridges that were key to the British military supply lines.
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