History & Historic Photos
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The early beginnings...
The Moravian Church (originated in 1457 in Moravia, today part of Slovakia) had a particular zeal for mission and in 1737 the young bachelor missionary Georg Schmidt was sent to the Cape. Many thought that mission work among the Khoi (Hottentots) was attempting the impossible, but in spite of this Schmidt settled on 23 April 1738 in Baviaans Kloof (Ravine of the Baboon) in the Riviersonderend Valley.
Schmidt became acquainted with an impoverished and dispersed Khoi people who were practically on the threshold of complete extinction. Apart from the few kraals, which still remained, there were already thirteen farms in the vicinity of Baviaans Kloof. Within a short while Schmidt formed a small Christian congregation. He taught the Khoi to read and write, but when he began to baptize his converts there was great dissatisfaction among the Cape Dutch Reformed clergy. According to them, Schmidt was not an ordained minister and as such, was not permitted to administer the sacraments. Consequently he had to abandon his work, and in 1744, after seven years at Baviaans Kloof, he left the country.
The first 150 years
Before the arrival of the Dutch in 1652, the Overberg was inhabited by Khoi tribes known as the Hessequas and Attaquas. The trading parties of Dutch people came to the area to barter for cattle and to cut timber early in the 18th century.
After Willem Adriaan van der Stel was recalled as Governor in 1707 (he owned large tracts of land here) loan-farms in the Overberg were granted to Burgers and officials alike. The occupation was helped on its way by Company posts established inter alia at Soetmelksvlei and Tygerhoek, both farms being on the Riviersonderend River.
All this happened to the exclusion of the Hessequas, (the Attequas living more to the east), who lost their land and herbs in the process. A large-scale and deadly smallpox epidemic in 1713 aggravated their position and they gradually became landless people, servants on the land of the Dutch farmers. One of the loan-farms was Weltevreden in the foothills of the majestic mountains, nestling along the Gobos River, a perennial stream and tributary of the Riviersonderend. The farm was first loaned in 1791 to M W Theunissen, a member of the renowned Theunissen family who owned much land and played an important role in the affairs of the Overberg. He built a house on Weltevreden in 1793, but unfortunately not even the ruins remain today.
In 1795 the farm was taken over by Hendrik Cloete of Groot Constantia. He was the Cape tycoon who owned many farms in the Overberg, including Mosselrivier (now Hermanus) and De Hoop, which is now a Nature Reserve on the coast north of Arniston. After the British occupations of the Cape in 1795 and again in 1806, Weltevreden became a freehold farm in his hands. Soon the so-called “British Invasion” of the Overberg started and in 1839 the first British owner of Weltevreden was John Malcolm Stewart. A few years before 1839, Weltevreden was offered for sale to the missionaries of Genadendal, but the offer was not accepted.
During 1842, two brothers of Huguenot descent, Henry Vigne (1805 – 1881) and Herbert Vigne (1821-1895) emigrated from England to settle in the Cape. They acquired Tygerhoek - now the town of Riviersonderend, and settled there. The farm remained in the hands of the Vigne family for 120 years. The Vigne brothers were related by marriage to Lady Anne Barnard, who toured the Overberg in 1798, as well as to the governor-to-be, Sir George Grey. Henry, apart from being a successful farmer, became a respected gentleman and politician in the Cape Court. Herbert on the other hand, still young, had quite an eventful time and reputedly had misalliances both in Genadendal and on the Eastern Cape frontier. After many disagreements, he was banned from Tygerhoek and in 1846 settled on the farm Bosjesmansklooof, next to Weltevreden. He acquired Weltevreden soon after that.
Founding the Village
In 1854 Herbert Vigne founded a freehold agricultural village on his farm Weltevreden. He kept two small portions for himself and bequeathed the remainder of the farm to the proprietors of the erven as commonage, naming it "GREYTON", after Sir George Grey, the then Governor of the Cape. The layout of the village was designed and set out by J G Rietz, a senior surveyor at the time. The layout remains essentially the same with only a few changes and additions through the years. In the 1860s Herbert married a young girl of British stock named Elizabeth Belshaw - 27 years his junior! They settled on their town farm De Bos, in the village (subsequently subdivided by his heirs after his death in 1895). Elizabeth bore him a legitimate family of three sons and a daughter to add to the illegitimate offspring of his younger days, whom he was to acknowledge in the village. Vigne Lane was later named after him.
The erven were long and narrow and were serviced with water running in "leiwater" furrows, which crisscrossed the village. Cottages, in the rural Cape Vernacular style, were built close to the street leaving large pieces of the erven for horticultural pursuits. The produce consisted of a variety of vegetables and fruits such as onions, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, beetroot, carrots, pomegranate, apricots, pears and the like.
Although the reason for the establishment of the village remains obscure, the fact is that Herbert Vigne left us with a village of unsurpassed beauty and enchantment. It is a wonder that the essence of the village and its Cape Vernacular architectural environment are largely intact and that the out-of-context and unresponsive development that has destroyed so many small towns of the Cape has up to now passed Greyton by.
The Greyton Village History Walk
On the Main Road as you come in to Greyton on your left is the Library, the second oldest building in the town - originally a small Anglican Church school for young children. Next to it is the Old Moravian Hall. A little further along is A Little Bizarre, a gift shop, and behind it is the Kraal Gallery. As you continue along Main Road, the double-storey on the left was once the home of the Mays family and is one of the oldest buildings in the village. At the back of the double storey building is a very old thatched roof cottage which predates the founding of Greyton in 1854.It is a National Heritage building. On the opposite side of the road are two well-known Greyton restaurants – the Abbey Rose and Peccadillos Bistro.
The Post House, on the corner of Main Road and Uitkyk Street is where the original road from Genadendal entered the town’s Market Street. This was the town’s main intersection. The building was originally a profitable trading store of the De Villiers family. It also incorporated several “nagmaalkamers” where parishioners attending nagmaal in the town could overnight. Later, the part of the building that is now the Post House pub was the village’s first Post Office. It too is a National Heritage building.
Turn right at that stop street and walk down Ds Botha Street past Railway House, which presently houses Catherine Paynter’s gallery. The building was built for SAR&H as a depot for goods that arrived by wagon and cart and later truck from Caledon Station. Farmers and villagers would take their produce to the store from where their goods would be collected and sent to Cape Town markets.
Further along Ds Botha Street is a long, low building under the oaks - The Oak & Vigne Café. The very old portion of the building was once used as a school, until the school was moved over the road into the building that now houses the Theewaterskloof municipal offices. The adjacent Vanilla Café, in an upgraded old barn, was the wagon maker’s workshop in the days of horse and wagon. Drivers and outriders left overnight in the barn’s upstairs loft while their oxen and horses were let loose to graze on the commonage.
At the intersection of Ds Botha and Oak Streets, look left. The recently restored, attractive double storey building facing you was once a school hostel. Adjacent to this is the David Kuijers art gallery. On the opposite side of the road, a new building houses the Greyton Grocer, the Post Office and fuel station. Next to it is a very old small cottage – now a shop – that was the home and forge of the village blacksmith.
Turn right into Oak Street. A little way down the street on the right side, under oak trees, is a flat-roofed, double storey house (No.22). The present owner's grandfather, old Mr Coxson, used to sit upstairs at his workbench in front of a window, repairing shoes. The barn was used as an undertaker’s parlour. The family still has an old high chair, which Mr Coxon made out of soapboxes, as well as other interesting family heirlooms.
Turn right into Justice Street and at the end of the road you will see Die Gang (No. 8). This house, which now incorporates original outbuildings for horses, pigs, cows and poultry, was the home of the Parel family from 1864. They bred horses which were grazed on the commonage. On the opposite corner is a low thatched cottage, Golden Pond (26 Vigne Lane), said to have been a cottage used by Herbert Vigne, founder of Greyton. His original farm, of which there is no longer any trace, was directly opposite.
Turn right into Vigne Lane, where some of the original mud-brick houses of Greyton, built between 1860 and 1870 are still to be seen on the right hand side of the road.
Walk back up to Main Road. Looking up past The Post House you will see the Moravian Church (formerly the Dutch Reformed Church). Turn right into Main Road and into the modern-day village centre. Just past the Information Office, Via’s deli occupies the former trading store of H.E. Babst (see the name on the façade). At the intersection of Main Road and High Street is the Village Business Centre. This was built back in 1925 as the Central Hotel Inn. Over the road is A.G Osman & Sons. Mr Osman's grandfather first came to Greyton in 1920. He traded across the road in what is today the Greyt Oak Centre before moving into the present premises in 1934.
Walk down High Street past Osman's to St Andrew's Anglican Church. The church was built in 1904 and also has Genadendal-made catches on the windows. The gravestone of Greyton’s founder, Herbert Vigne and his wife Elizabeth (nee Belshaw), has recently been relocated from a neglected cemetery in Caledon to the grounds of St Andrew’s Church. A plaque on the low wall gives relevant information.
Turn left into Jones Street. The buildings on your right are part of the old Anglican Church hall and manse. Turn left into Cross Market Street and right into Main Road. The stalls on the village square were erected by the Conservation Society, and a produce and craft market is held here every Saturday morning.
The Dutch Reformed Church on your left was built in 1964, and the building beyond the tennis courts is the DRC Hall.
At the intersection of Main Road and Grey Street is the Greyton Lodge. Part of this building, which became a hotel in 1985, dates back to 1882. At one time rooms 4, 5 and 6 were police cells.
Turn right into Grey Street, then left into Vlei Street. The open land beyond Vlei Street is part of Greyton's commonage. Look for the recently restored communal ‘skaapkraal’ (sheep kraal) with explanatory plaque.
Turn right just before Regent Street and walk down to Greyton's picnic spot on the Gobos River.
Return up Regent Street and turn left into Main Road. On the corner of Kloof Street and Main Road is The Lord Pickleby, a B&B that was the original Belshaw family home (daughter Elizabeth married Herbert Vigne).