Greyton Accommodation

Way back in the middle of the eighteenth century the Dutch East India Company established a company cattle farm in the area called Zoete Melks Valleij (Sweet Milk Valley), no doubt because the area at the foot of the towering Zondereind Mountains was so fertile and there was plenty of water for abundant crops and healthy livestock. At the time, the farm was managed by Baas Theunissen. His son, Marthinus Theunissen Jnr. went on to obtain the farm Weltevreden (Greyton) which was situated between Zoete Melks Valleij and Baviaans Kloof, Genadendal, as well as many other farms. Theunissen was obviously an exceptionally wealthy landowner at the time because he also owned the beautiful Vergelegen in Somerset West. Weltevreden was later sold to another wealthy landowner and old Cape personality, Hendrik Cloete, who also owned Groot Constantia.

When the Cape became a permanent possession of the British Crown in 1815, the ‘English invasion’ of the Overberg began. Herbert Vigne, son of a London merchant and descendant of a Huguenot who had fled to England, purchased the farm Weltevreden in 1846. Herbert was related by marriage to both Lady Anne Barnard and Sir George Grey, Governor of the Cape. In 1854 he subdivided his farm into 120 plots and called the new village Greyton, after Sir George Grey. Grey is said to have assisted in the design of the village. The sale of the plots was advertised in the news sheets of the day and purchasers from all over the Cape bought land at prices ranging from five to eleven pounds sterling a plot.

McGregor, immediately over the Sonderend Mountains, was established soon after Greyton. Only then it was called Lady Grey in honour of Sir Grey’s wife. Herbert Vigne was responsible for building the footpath between the villages and some of the older residents remember walking to McGregor to play a game of tennis, and then walking back home again.

One of the attractions of Greyton is the town’s pretty Victorian architecture and many of the holiday homes, now being used mostly as self catering cottages and stores have been lovingly restored. Two buildings have been declared National Monuments: the Post House and the building occupied by Ploom’s Pottery. The Post House dates back to 1860 when it housed Greyton’s first post office. The building was made the old-fashioned way, with rock foundations and mud-and-straw bricks. Getting mail in those days was a significantly slower process than it is today. Mr Outa Karools made the long journey to Caledon three times a week by horse and cart to fetch the post. In the evening, he used to announce his arrival to the residents by blowing on his horn. Today, the Post House is a popular upmarket guesthouse that oozes country charm and hospitality.

Up until the mid-1970’s Greyton was a sleepy paradise untouched by apartheid where black and white families farmed side by side as they had done for generations. After 1976, however, the town changed dramatically when coloured families who had lived there for generations were moved to a new ‘township’ known as Heuwelkroon. The vacated houses were snapped up by people looking for weekend retreats and the gentrification of the village began. Not surprisingly, there are currently several land claims laid against properties in Greyton. Please click on the following blue text for recent changes in Greyton.