Watchful Monument
The story of the Kanonkop hill in Montagu starts in the early 1820s when a farmer named Abraham Verreyne came to Pietersfontein to pursue beekeeping. Evidently, he brought a ship’s front loader cannon with balls that weighed 8 pounds each with him. The only time he fired it was to scare off a thief.
In later years, the cannon was transferred to the hill just above town, which was in turn named Kanonkop, (meaning ‘cannon head’). It was placed near two gunpowder houses owned by Brink Bros. and the famous Barry & Nephews. It was placed there to be fired on special occasions, such as Queen Victoria’s birthday. But tragedy struck when the cannon was to be fired on the day of the church inauguration. It was lit too soon and shot into the man still loading the cannon. He lost both his arms, and the angry farmers pushed the cannon over the hill.
After Cogmanskloof Pass was completed in 1877, the engineer of the road transported the cannon to Rooiwal, now known as the town of Ashton. However, when they tried to fire the cannon, it burst due to rust. Thus Kanonkop was left without a cannon for almost 100 years. Then in 1988, the mayor of Montagu heard about a sunken cannon near the shore of Simon’s Town. The mayor and other community members obtained permission to retrieve the cannon, and soon it was brought to Montagu. After its thick layer of salt and mussels was removed, it was placed on Kanonkop, now a monument that watches over the valley.