Ward 2 Development Forum

Greyton and the Planned Towns of the Cape

Properties3
descriptionGreyton was planned from the start as a farming village, and it came late among the Cape's planned towns. How it compares with the towns and leiwater villages laid out before and beside it, and what sets it apart.
tagstheme/heritage, theme/water, lang/en
aliasesWas Greyton the first planned town?, First planned town, Planned towns of the Cape

13 min read

It is often said in Greyton that the village “was one of the very first fully town planned developments in the Cape Colony and possibly in Southern Africa”, and that “it was planned and developed as an agricultural village” [MS]. This page tests the saying against the record. It compares Greyton with the towns laid out in the Cape before it and alongside it, and sets out what can be said with confidence. Greyton’s own story is on History of Greyton, and the story of the whole valley is on History of the Valley.

What the letters in square brackets mean

Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.

  • [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
  • [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from one community’s or organisation’s own sources: for Greyton, its local histories, which often repeat each other; for other towns, their own museums, heritage societies, or local histories.
  • [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.

The sections A fairer way to say it and Read through TIME are the Forum’s reading and carry no tags.

The short answer

Greyton was planned from the start as a farming village [IC]. It was one of many planned towns in the Cape, and a late one. When its first plots were sold in 1854, towns had been laid out in the Cape for more than 150 years, and many of them brought water to their plots in furrows, as Greyton does [IC]. Worcester was drawn in full on a grid, with 144 plots, in 1819 and 1820 [IC]. Closer to home, Villiersdorp was laid out on part of a farmer’s land in 1843 [IC]. Greyton belongs to a group of villages laid out in the Western Cape in the 1850s by dividing a farm into plots with water rights, as at Montagu and Stanford [IC]. What Greyton can fairly claim is how well it has kept its plan. The layout has changed little [IC], and its leiwater still works [MS].

At a glance

The sayingGreyton was “one of the very first fully town planned developments in the Cape Colony and possibly in Southern Africa” [MS]
Planned as a farming village?Yes. The surveyor J.G. Rietz laid out long plots, watered from the Gobos River, with grazing on a commonage [IC]
One of the first planned towns?No. Stellenbosch was laid out in 1685 [MS], and by 1854 the Cape had many planned towns with watered plots [IC]
Planned towns nearby before 1854Caledon, Napier, and Bredasdorp, all founded by 1838 [IC], and Villiersdorp in 1843 [IC]
Where Greyton stands outIts plan has changed little [IC], and its leiwater is one of the few still working [MS]

What the saying gets right

Greyton was planned before it was built. Herbert Vigne bought the farm Weltevreden in 1846, and the surveyor J G Rietz drew the plan of the village [IC]. The plan divided the farm into long, narrow plots, each with room for a house and a strip of land for crops and a few animals [IC]. The first plots were sold in 1854, each with a title deed and a water right [IC]. Plot owners also shared grazing on the commonage around the village [MS]. Water reached the plots through open furrows from the Gobos River, the leiwater [MS]. So Greyton was designed as a farming village, and the plan came first [IC].

Planned towns before Greyton

By 1854 the Cape had been laying out towns for well over a century [IC]. Many were laid out on grids, with water led along the streets to plots large enough for a garden [IC].

The first towns. Stellenbosch dates from 1679 or 1685, depending on the source [IC]. In 1685 the company set aside sites there for a drostdy (the magistrate’s seat) and a church, with plots for residents between the two [MS]. Swellendam followed in the 1740s [IC]. Sources give 1743, 1745, and 1746. Graaff-Reinet was founded in 1786 [IC], though one source gives 1785. There, furrows cut from the Sundays River watered the large garden plots that were a feature of the early town [TBV].

Church towns. At Tulbagh, plots were sold along the street from the church to the minister’s house to pay for the church, and the street was named Church Street in 1795 [MS]. In the 1800s the Dutch Reformed Church founded many country towns, called kerkdorpe (church towns) [IC]. Robertson, founded in 1853 or 1854, is one [IC]. A study of the Karoo’s church towns describes them as placed wherever good water could be tapped, laid out on grids with the church on a large square, and watered by furrows called leivore [TBV].

Towns drawn in full. Some towns were drawn in full before a single plot was sold, the way Greyton was.

  • Uitenhage (1804). Laid out on a grid of wide streets, with plots of one morgen and water channels along the streets, in what one historian calls “a typical Dutch layout popular in the Cape Colony at the time” [TBV].
  • George (1811). One of the first acts of its magistrate was to dig a furrow to water the town’s first 36 plots [TBV].
  • Worcester (1820). In 1818 the governor ordered a site found for a new town, and two farms were chosen. Colonial surveyors mapped them in January 1819, and on 28 February 1820, 89 of the 144 plots were sold [IC]. The town was laid out on a grid, “typical for the new inland towns established at the time” [IC]. Worcester was drawn in full 34 years before Greyton’s first plots were sold.

In the Overberg and the valley. Caledon, Napier, and Bredasdorp were all founded before Greyton, between 1811 and 1838 [IC]. In this valley, Georg Schmidt dug a water furrow and planted gardens at Baviaanskloof, now Genadendal, in 1738, 116 years before Greyton’s first plots were sold [IC].

Beyond the Cape. Voortrekkers founded Pietermaritzburg in 1839 [IC]. The Cape is itself part of southern Africa, so the answer for southern Africa is the same.

Greyton’s own group

In the 1840s and 1850s several villages in the Western Cape were laid out by dividing a farm into plots, often sold with water rights [IC]. Greyton is one of them.

WhenVillageHow it began
1843VilliersdorpPieter de Villiers, a local farmer, asked the governor for leave to lay out a settlement on part of his farm [IC]. One source gives 1841 [TBV].
From 1851MontaguD.S. van der Merwe sold his farm Uitvlucht to create a town, and it was divided into plots from 1851 [IC]. Each residential plot’s title deed gave it one hour of irrigation water, from furrows dug on the farm before the town existed [IC].
1852 to 1854GreytonHerbert Vigne had Weltevreden laid out by J.G. Rietz, and the first plots were sold in 1854 with water rights [IC].
1855 to 1857StanfordPhilippus de Bruyn bought the farm Kleine Riviers Valley in December 1855 and had the surveyor Huys lay out 200 plots [MS]. They were auctioned on 5 May 1856 [MS]. Every plot had water for household use, 97 had irrigation rights, and about 1,200 hectares were set aside for grazing [MS]. Plots were sold “with reference to the availability of water” [IC]. The Stanford Conservation Trust dates the layout to 1857 [MS].
1862McGregorFirst called Lady Grey, the village was proclaimed in 1862 and divided into plots of 2.5 hectares [MS].

Montagu and Stanford, like Greyton, sold their plots with water from furrows written into the terms of sale [IC].

What sets Greyton apart

Its plan survives. Rietz’s layout “remains essentially the same with only a few changes and additions through the years” [IC]. Theewaterskloof Municipality describes Greyton’s long, narrow plots and leiwater channels as “still in existence today” [IC].

Its leiwater still works. Greyton’s leiwater is run by volunteer water bailiffs and street wardens, and is described as one of the last working heritage irrigation systems of its kind in South Africa [MS]. In many towns the furrows have stopped working [IC]. Prince Albert’s furrows are a Provincial Heritage Site, and Stanford’s have been nominated for the same protection [IC].

It is among the best preserved. The Stanford Conservation Trust says Heritage Western Cape regards Stanford as the third best preserved village in the Western Cape, after Montagu and “certain areas of Greyton” [MS]. McGregor describes itself as “the best preserved and most complete example of mid-nineteenth Century Towns, in the Cape Province” [MS]. Greyton’s claim to be among the best preserved villages of its kind rests on sources like these, and it shares that claim with its neighbours [MS].

A stronger claim, still unproven. Two sources say Greyton was “the only town in the Cape in which such land with full title deeds, water rights and grazing rights was for sale to anyone”, and that plots went to buyers “of any race, nationality or religion” [TBV]. The two use the same words, so they probably share one origin. If Greyton’s first title deeds bear this out, it would set Greyton apart far more than its plan does. The deeds have not yet been checked.

A fairer way to say it

This wording is the Forum’s suggestion for residents and guides who want to keep the spirit of the saying:

Greyton was planned from the start as a farming village, one of many laid out in the Cape with plots watered by furrows. Few have kept their plan so well, and its leiwater still runs.

Read through TIME

In the terms of the TIME model used on The Valley Through TIME, Greyton’s planned plots belong to the Markets form: land measured, given a title deed and a water right, and sold. See Land as Property. The same plan also holds two things shared by the whole village: the leiwater, taken by turns, and the commonage, held in common. The Valley Through TIME asks whether these belong among the early signs of the Emergent form. The planned farming villages of the Cape carried both kinds of arrangement from the start. What is unusual about Greyton is that its water is still shared by turns today.

What is still open

  • Where the saying began. It may have grown out of the claim that Greyton was the only Cape town where plots were sold to anyone.
  • Whether any village in the Overberg was laid out on a private farm, with plots and water rights, before Villiersdorp.
  • Whether Rietz’s original plan of Greyton survives. The Surveyor-General’s office in Cape Town may hold it.
  • What Greyton’s first title deeds say about water rights and grazing. They would also show who was allowed to buy.
  • Why Greyton’s plan and leiwater survived when so many others did not.
  • What two works not yet read for this page add: Hans Fransen’s survey of the old towns and villages of the Cape, and J.T. Kemp’s article on Greyton (see References).

Have your say

If you know where the saying comes from, hold early deeds or plans of Greyton, or know the history of another planned village in the Overberg, contact the moderators via How to Submit.

References

On Greyton:

  • Moderators’ note, 27 September 2026. The saying as it is heard in Greyton.
  • Wikipedia. Greyton. Rietz’s layout “essentially the same”, and the claim that plots with full title were sold to anyone.
  • South African History Online. Greyton, Western Province. The same points, in the same words.
  • Theewaterskloof Municipality. Greyton. Long plots and leiwater channels “still in existence today”.
  • History of Greyton and Greyton’s Leiwater, and the sources listed there. The plan, the plots, the leiwater, Prince Albert, and Stanford’s nomination.

Planned towns before Greyton:

Greyton’s own group:

  • Wikipedia. Villiersdorp. Pieter de Villiers and the dates 1841 and 1843.
  • Xplorio Villiersdorp. History of Villiersdorp. De Villiers’s request to the governor in 1843.
  • Montagu Leiwater Users’ Association. History of the system. The farm Uitvlucht, subdivided from 1851, with one hour of water in each title deed.
  • Portrait of a Village. Founding of the Village. Stanford’s founding: De Bruyn, Huys, the 200 plots, the auction, water, and grazing. Also that Caledon, Napier, and Bredasdorp were founded between 1811 and 1838.
  • Stanford Conservation Trust. Heritage. Stanford’s layout of 1857, and Heritage Western Cape’s ranking.
  • Heritage Western Cape. Stanford Leiwater nomination. Plots sold with reference to water.
  • South African History Online. McGregor, Western Cape. Its proclamation in 1862 with plots of 2.5 hectares, and its claim to be the best preserved.

Not yet read for this page:

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