Malmesbury

Around the town stone age tools are found on the disturbed, agricultural lands, and more so alongside the Diep River and streams, telling us of human occupation over many millions of years.

The San also left evidence, in paintings on nearby Kasteelberg, and even though a transhumant people, the Khoekhoe too left similar indications of their presence. In today’s aware world, these people altered the environment little and must be considered to have had a balanced existence.

San paintings on the lower slopes of Kasteelberg

Group purported to be by the Khoekhoe near the summit of the Kasteelberg

When an expedition in 1655 under Jan Wintervogel left the settlement at the Cape scouting for cattle and minerals, it was the first to encounter the San, after previous dealings with the Khoekhoe. He described them as ‘a certain people of very small stature, subsisting very meagrely, quite wild, without huts, cattle...

This group of structures still survives. But in what form? They came on my heritage radar more than a decade ago but I would like to review the situation now. Originally established as a mission church in the town, there was an attached pastorie, plus school building divided between boys and girls. In the grounds behind the group is one of the wells that helped sustain the early town.

Then came the infamous group areas act and forced removals - the coloured people who had made up the congregation were relocated to a section of the town called Wesbank. The church had lost its function and amongst subsequent owners was the Department of Community Development. Something of an irony.

A fascinating side story had developed over the years. In 1910 a new pulpit was purchased by the NG Church in Malmesbury, and the original was donated to the NG Mission Church. When in 1973 The ‘Calvynse Kerk’ sought a pulpit for their new church they approached the Department, which sold 80 pews, and the pulpit for the grand total of R50. The pulpit, however, is of historical value, dated 1795, and believed to be the work of renowned sculptor, Anton Anreith. The solid oak pulpit was transported in sections from Cape Town to Malmesbury by ox wagons in 1795, and inaugurated on 23 October of that year.

To return to the mission church. It later became a store for an agricultural company and although preservation was not part of their core focus, the windows were...