Mills were initially used for grinding grain into flour and in the case of Port Elizabeth they were used to compress bales of wool. Prior to the invention of motors, mills were powered either by wind or water. During the Industrial Revolution, the definition of mills was expanded to include factories fitted with machinery which performed a specific manufacturing process.

Main picture: Painting by Thomas Baines of Cradock Place with the mill tower in the background

When the  settlers settled in the Eastern Province the only forms of power available to them, other than human and animal, were wind and water, and it was not long before windmills and waterwheels had been constructed to serve the growing community.   

The First Flour Mill
The first flour mill was constructed by Frederick Korsten shortly after 1812 on his huge estate at Cradock Place. Nothing has survived but a clutch of photographs. The mill was used for the grinding of corn in  times of peace but also acted as a valued place of refuge from the marauding Khoikhoi and Xhosa warriors during the sporadic Frontier Wars..

Frederick  Korsten had in his employ a miller to whom he was much attached. One day, whilst he was engaged in repairing the sails a sudden gust of wind caused the sails to revolve. In the process a beam struck him on the head, killing him instantly. After this tragic death of his faithful servant, Frederick Korsten would never again work the mill. The roof and machinery were removed, and a number of small turrets were built around the top, on which was erected a flagstaff. Among the family and friends the tower was then called the ‘Fort van de Leur’ and was mounted with two small brass cannons, fired off by the grandsons on great occasions.  

A picture of Cradock Place painted by Thomas Baines in the 1870’s shows the windmill in full working order.  Later pictures show that it had been dismantled and used as a fortress and storehouse. The tower survived until well into the 1920’s but subsequently it has been completely destroyed.

First steam mills
During September 1848, William Henry Coleman’s steam mills were completed, the first of their kind in the Eastern Province, They were located on the lower corner of Military Road and Baakens Street.

Shortly after Coleman’s mills became operational, John Owen Smith’s steam mills, the second to be built here, began operating on the 26^th April 1850.

The Port Elizabeth Steam Mill Company
The official opening of the Port Elizabeth Steam Mill Company was on the 6^th September 1884. The building in Queen Street was designed by G.W. Smith. The PESM Company was formed on 6 July 1882 with Chairman and Directors John Tudhope, M.G. Salomon, Robert Davidson. Charles Hannam, James Brister and H.W. Dalldorf. In 1891, after a merger with Richard Attwell’s milling company  in Cape Town, it became the S.A. Milling Company.

The story of how Snowflake became South Africa’s most loved flour begins in the late 1880s when the Port Elizabeth Steam Mill Company was founded and, in 1884, the Snowflake brand was officially registered.

In the same year, gold was discovered in South Africa and expansion to Cape Town was rapid, where the well-regarded company, JW Stephen & Co, was appointed as agents. Despite the second Anglo Boer war, the company flourished, and the tallest mill standing at an impressive 50 metres tall was built in Cape Town. By 1891 the PE Steam Mill Company had merged with Cape Town’s Attwell Bakery and the first Snowflake adverts began to appear.

Schedule of mills

Name/Location	Date built	Power	Owner	Usage
Cradock Place	After 1812	Wind	Frederick Korsten	Flour & corn mill
Gubbs Location	Unknown	Water	Thomas W. Gubb	Unknown
Holmes’ sawmill	Unknown	Unknown	Thomas Holmes	Cutting wood
Noordhoek Mill	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Evatt’s Mill	Unknown	Water	Francis Evatt	Unknown
Coleman’s Mill	1848	Steam	W.H. Coleman	Flour
John O. Smith	Unknown	Steam	John Owen Smith	Unknown
PE Steam Mill Co.	Sep 1884	Steam		Flour

Note: Holme’s mill was the first sawmill in Port Elizabeth. The street in which it was located was Mill Street, just off Main Street  

Unidentified mills

Mill at Chelsea Point
In setting up his woolwashing plant, John Wyatt chose a remote and inaccessible location. During the 1860s the only direct connection with Port Elizabeth was across the soft drift sand area which almost hermetically sealed this rocky southern coastline from the town itself. As this sand was fickle and capricious, forming ridge lines of skittish sand dunes forever on the move, never settling at one location for long. Instead the wool-bearing wagons must have made their way along the coastline until they encountered the Old Fisheries Road at the Shark River. It was at this lonely and isolated place close to Chelsea Point that Wyatt located his water mill. It was beside a natural spring on the farm De Fontyne – later known as De Duine – the dunes in English. This spring still runs today.

Details of John Parkin’s Mill according to Keith Parkin
There is also archive evidence of John Parkin having owned a mill as early as 1825. Parkin had become involved in industrial development at Cradock Place on returning to PE from the farm Devonshire allocated to the Parkin Party in 1820. Together with John Damant (Frederick Korsten’s son-in-law)they partnered in the construction of a saw-mill around late 1824 into early 1825. Damant’s sudden death in April 1825 led to a protracted dispute over accounts. During this dispute, John wrote a strongly worded letter to Maria Damant (Korsten’s daughter), accusing her (Korsten’s) notary, Mr Chabaud, of deliberate delay. The letter resulted in a charge of libel, and John was fined 300 Rix Dollars. [Western Cape Archives KAB CO 3935 127] Despite this setback, he appears to have continued operating a mill until January 1834, when it was destroyed by fire. A contemporary newspaper account recorded the incident: [eGGSA SA newspaper Extracts]
“Grahamstown Journal 1834 – 1 – January to June – Thursday 22 May 1834
On Monday the 13th inst., the flour mill of Mr. PARKINS, situated near Port Elizabeth, was completely consumed by fire. The premises was insured in the “South African Insurance Company” for £800 sterling.
The fire appears to have originated under the following circumstances:—Some workmen had been occupied in the morning in fixing iron bands upon the timbers, for the purpose of attaching a saw-mill to part of the machinery; and having placed some wet clothes upon the heated iron, had left the spot. It is supposed that, in driving the bands on, a spark must have flown from the iron, and fallen unobserved upon the lower part of the mill, perhaps among the flour-sacks, and thence communicated with the machinery.