Nigel Amschwand

The town of Calvinia is situated south of the Hantam mountains. The name connects it to the early inhabitants of the area, the Khoekhoen, who probably called the place Hantam due to the abundance of the plant Pelargonium biflorium, which they called Heyntama.

The first colonists arrived in the 1740s. The farm Ackkerendam (now the nature reserve to the north of the town) was granted to Jan Otto Diedriks on the 24th December 1750. In 1763 it was transferred to Adriaan van Zyl, who passed it to his niece’s husband, Abraham van Wyk. The van Wyks later occupied the adjacent farm Hoog Kraal and in 1847 a section was sold to The Church Wardens of the Dutch Reformed Church at Hantam, the original name of the village. The first minister changed the name to Calvinia after the Protestant reformer, John Calvin.

The surveyor, J Knobel, laid out water erven from the centre of the town towards the Oorlogskloof River. These were watered from a spring at the western end of Water Street that led into a furrow that crossed these plots. On the other side of the long church square were dry erven. Later, the streets alongside the square were named Water Street to the south and Hope Street to the north.

The Census of the Cape Colony of 1865 showed the increases in occupations for the Clanwilliam District, of which Clanwilliam and Calvinia were the principle towns. From 1856 to 1865 those engaged in agriculture grew in numbers from...

Fifty years after van Riebeeck landed at the Cape, the Tygerburg hills were occupied by loan farms. Within these farms was an outspan with a good strong spring of sweet water that became an important stopping place on the road to the north.

This stopping place became known as Pampoenkraal (Pumpkin Patch) and a village was laid out in 1806. On the 2nd September 1836 it was renamed D’Urban in honour of the Governor of the Cape from 1836 to 1838, Sir Benjamin D’Urban. Unfortunately the following year, Port Natal changed its name to Durban. This caused some confusion, such as that carrying on today with towns having similar names like Ladismith (Western Cape) and Ladysmith (KZN). To avoid this, the name was changed to Durbanville in 1886.

Up until the mid-19th century D’Urban was a farming centre with a church, school and no doubt a trading store. Prosperity arrived with the founding of King Brothers Wagon Works. These works expanded to take up half a block, extending from Church Street and running between Durban and Gladstone roads up to the carpark between Durban Road and Scher Street. It was said by some to be the greatest wagon works in South Africa and at its height employed 80 people. The business closed before the First World War.

A wagon business needs a blacksmiths and Baxter Brothers started their establishment around the same time. Their works were situated where the Caltex fuel station is at the corner of Wellington Road and...