Greyton
The beautifully situated little village of Greyton lies in an area rich in wild flowers where there are opportunities for bass fishing and delightful walks into the mountains. The ideal getaway from cluttered city life, Greyton offers peace and tranquility combined with quaint rustic country living made all the more picturesque by its thatched homes, shady trees and delightful village atmosphere.
Greyton is laid out on the old farm Weltevreden, which was owned in 1793 by Marthinus Theunissen Junior, son of the legendary Marthinus Theunissen, known as Baas Teunis, who was the father figure of the Overberg farmers of that time.
Marthinus Theunissen Junior, as he was known, was an entrepreneur and builder who later built the church in Caledon. It was he who having built his new homestead on Weltevreden, loaned one of his labourers who was a skilled bricklayer and plasterer to the new missionaries at Baviaanskloof, to help build their first house at the settlement.
The farm, Weltevreden, was later sub-divided into agricultural plots which became Greyton, so named in honour of Sir George Gray, Governor of the Cape. The town attained municipal status in 1910.
Genadendal lies some 5 kilometres from Greyton under the peaks of the Riviersonderend Mountains.
In this dramatic setting in 1737, George Schmidt, 'the Apostle of the Hottentots', founded South Africa's first mission station in the Baviaanskloof. Forbidden by the Dutch authorities to administer baptism and generally hampered in his activities, Schmidt returned to Germany in 1744.
The Moravian Society resumed the missionary work in 1792 and made considerable progress after the British occupation in 1795. In 1806 the mission station was named Genadendal (valley of grace).
In a village made picturesque by its white-washed thatched cottages, church and manse, water-mill and groves of lovely old oaks, the cherished eighteenth-century relic is the old church bell. Now a national monument, the bell has survived a remarkable history. It was brought into the precinct of the mission station in 1793 when the Reverend Meent Borcherds controlled the large Dutch Reformed Church parish of Stellenbosch. During these early days of colonization 'foreign' churches were jealously guarded against. The Lutheran congregation at the Cape had a long struggle for recognition and when they eventually obtained permission to build their own church, a church bell was prohibited. Similarly, the Reverend Borcherds complained about the bell brought to Genadendal, saying that it could be heard in Stellenbosch! He made representations to the Council of Policy to have the Genadendal church suppressed. For a long time after this the ringing of the mission bell was allowed only after permission was first obtained from the authorities. When Lord Macartney came to the Cape, he gave permission for the bell to be used to call the congregation to church. Thus the famed bell was built into a bell-cage and from 1798 the mission rang the bell for every conceivable reason, usually nine times a day. It is a little known fact that it was at this time that Baviaanskloof became the largest town outside of Cape Town, with a population in excess of 1000 people and some two hundred houses.
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