Welcome to the Mill Series. It is an appreciation of such a lovely heritage of Mills and Water Towers sharing them along with and their environments with each other as fellow Geocaching Enthusiasts. Please feel welcome to check out the series Website at www.geocachingmillseries.weebly.com
PLEASE note the cache is NOT at the listed coordinates. You need to follow the narrative story. To reach the cache you follow the following adventure treasure Hunt: Arriving at the listed coordinates where you can park walk towards this magnificent water tower. At the base of the tower on the outside of the fence will be your surprise. Yes we have permission to walk on the first level of the flower bed but just respect the flowers.
Please just apply discretion with the lock not leaving it on the ground to expose the code. No stealth is need as security and the staff know about the cache and will not only be looking right at you but will likely greet you and be excited for the visit. They are generally very friendly.
PLEASE Preserve and do NOT remove the Letterbox stamp kit with a stamp and ink pad in a zip lock bag in the cache. Please ensure the ink pad is properly sealed closed so the ink does not dry so the following cachers can enjoy it just as much. Thanks very much.
Stark grounds History: This water tower was of tremendous importance from this farm where it is and the entire area it was a landmark.
The Founder of this property who built this water Tower on their farm is the late George and Annie Starck. One of the greatest hallmarks left on the property is the wooden features in both the water tower and the buildings and is of astounding carpentry craftsmanship for both fixed and free standing furniture. The atmosphere this creatures is tremendously special and hugely historic and definitely worth enjoying. In historical importance, quality, craftsmanship features and vintage it is line with national monuments like Simon van der Stel’s in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.
George Starck was one of seven children having three sisters, and three brothers. When he landed in Cape Town, however, the country was in the middle of a deep and serious depression following the end of the Boer War and owned nothing.
He started out trying to survive doing electrical work and making furniture. His break came as the great depression subsided and the demand for furniture improved.
To Share on the personalities and characters of George and Annie Starck. George was a man of very strong character with huge perserverence to succeed. He did not have the benefit of a good education and was not a particularly skilled craftsman but had made his mind up to earn a living by making furniture, and to reach the top of the industry. One of his great skills was in finding men of ability to work for him. He tended to draw great loyalty from his employees and friends alike. His ethical standards in business were beyond reproach, and he earned the respect of friend and foe alike.
Annie, his wife, shared his high moral standards and was a true pillar as to her family and friends, and with a very soft nature and a heart worn firmly on her sleeve. She valued her friends greatly and treated them with great warmth and compassion and had a fine sense of humour.
During the years between the wars both George Starck and his business developed greatly in status and success. Competition in the furniture industry was fierce, and one of his great qualities was his realization of the need to keep ahead in manufacturing techniques, including raw materials, plant and machinery. He boasted that every year for twenty years between the wars, he traveled abroad in search of new developments, and undoubtedly this paid huge dividends.
In the early 1930’s, he decided that Wesley Street was becoming too small and he bought a farm of several hundred acres at Elsies River, and started building a new factory there. When completed, this comprised some 25 acres of covered floor space – easily the largest of its kind in South Africa, and arguably in the Southern Hemisphere at the time.
On the outbreak of war in 1939, General Smuts quickly recognized his abilities when he became Prime Minister, and in January 1940 he was summoned to Pretoria by the General, who invited him to join his administration as a full time official in helping to harness the country’s industry to the war effort. He immediately agreed to do so, but on condition that the appointment would be entirely unpaid. He left his own considerable business to be run by his staff for the duration of the war and moved to Johannesburg to service his country of adoption as a Deputy Director of War Supplies for no reward, except the satisfaction of doing his duty.
One of his greatest personal ambitions was to build his own house, and he resolved to do that on his farms where we are now. The wonderful woodwork including the windows, doors, paneling, as well as the furniture, that are around you were designed and made in his own factory by his own craftsmen. The stone fireplace in the lounge, comprising 365 stone shoddies, was made at Rochester Brickworks, of which he was Chairman, from Table Mountain stone that was quarried there.
The matter of the disposal of his considerable fortune on his death was one to which the Starcks gave much thought during the later years of their lives. They were, above all, very much wanting to repay South Africa for its acceptance of them as one of its citizens, and for the opportunities to succeed that it had offered to him, and which he so ably grasped to the ultimate great benefit of the country as well as himself.
He chose the George and Annie Starck complex, including the Annie Starck Village and the G H Starck Centre, as the means of doing this and, although his scheme was little more than a germ in his mind when he made his Will, and the instructions that he left were necessarily of a general nature only.
I believe that he would be very satisfied with the way that it has taken shape if he could be with us to see it all today in which it is now a care center. In grateful memory or the late George Henry & Annie Starck. Tours of the inside of the main building and grounds can be pre-arranged by contacting me but plenty notice needs to be given.
We really trust you Enjoy the cache the water tower and the environment here.
PLEASE - PLEASE - PLEASE ONLY TAKE A TRACKABLE TRAVEL BUG OR TRACKABLE GEOCOIN IF YOU ARE GOING TO MOVE IT AND LOG IT!
Remember these are the property of other cachers - please respect this and abide according to the guidelines. You can also log one without moving it.
Please read more on how TBs work before taking one!
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