Klip River
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The Klip River is the main river draining the portion of
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...
south of the
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
, and its basin includes the
Johannesburg CBD The Central Business District, commonly called Johannesburg CBD, is one of the main business centres of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the densest collection of skyscrapers in Africa, however, due to white flight and urban blight, many of the b ...
and
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a ...
. The mouth of the river is at
Vereeniging Vereeniging () is a town located in the south of Gauteng province, South Africa, situated where the Klip River empties into the northern loop of the Vaal River. It is also one of the constituent parts of the Vaal Triangle region and was formerly s ...
where it empties into the
Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocean. ...
, which is a tributary to the
Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...
. Besides Vereeniging, other towns along the river include Henley on Klip and Meyerton.


The Kidson Weir

The Kidson Weir is a
weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...
located in the village of Henley on Klip on the Klip river in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
, and was named after Fenning Kidson, the grandson of an 1820 settler.


History

Fenning was educated in England, but returned to South Africa as a young man and became a transport rider, a contemporary of Sir
Percy FitzPatrick Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, (24 July 1862 – 24 January 1931), known as Percy FitzPatrick, was a South African author, politician, mining financier and pioneer of the fruit industry. He authored the classic children's book, ''Jock of the Bus ...
. Soon after the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War, news came to Kidson that a commando was on his way to his farm to arrest him. Under the noses of the Boers he escaped, riding sidesaddle, his burly frame crammed into his wife’s riding habit. He finally made his way to Natal, but returned to the Transvaal after the war, settling in Henley on Klip with his wife, Edith. The family home was named Tilham, which is the manor house on the river at the corner of Regatta and Shillingford Roads.


Today

In December 2010, the village of Henley on Klip experienced heavy floods, after which, it was decided to do some work on improving the weir. In January 2012 work has started on the repairs to the pipes on the western side of the weir. In March 2012 plans were being drawn up to build a new bridge across the weir.


See also

*
List of rivers of South Africa This is a list of rivers in South Africa. It is quite common to find the Afrikaans word ''-rivier'' as part of the name. Another common suffix is "''-kamma''", from the Khoisan term for "river" Meiring, Barbara"South African Toponymic Guideline ...
*
Jukskei River The Jukskei River is one of the largest rivers in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the southernmost river in the Crocodile River (West) basin. Course The Jukskei begins in Ellis Park in Johannesburg. Its original spring was on the former Doornf ...


References


External links


HENLEY-ON-KLIPHENLEY-ON-KLIPCommunity pages
- Henley on Klip * {{Authority control Geography of Johannesburg Vaal River Rivers of Gauteng