Colesberg

Last updated

Colesberg
Koolsberg in Afrikaans orthography
Dutch Reformed Church Colesberg-001.jpg
Coniston House Colesberg-001.jpg
Colesberg Main Street2.jpg
Horse and Mill Colesberg-001.jpg
Kemper Museum Colesberg-001.jpg
Top:Dutch Reformed Church, middle left: Coniston House, right: Main Street, bottom left: Horse and Mill, right: Kemper Museum.
South Africa Northern Cape location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Colesberg
South Africa adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Colesberg
Africa location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Colesberg
Coordinates: 30°43′00″S25°06′00″E / 30.71667°S 25.10000°E / -30.71667; 25.10000
Country South Africa
Province Northern Cape
District Pixley ka Seme
Municipality Umsobomvu
Established1830 [1]
Area
[2]
  Total174.84 km2 (67.51 sq mi)
Population
 (2011) [2]
  Total16,869
  Density96/km2 (250/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
[2]
   Black African 67.4%
   Coloured 25.7%
   Indian/Asian 0.6%
   White 5.3%
  Other1.0%
First languages (2011)
[2]
   Xhosa 59.5%
   Afrikaans 33.1%
   Sotho 2.8%
   English 1.8%
  Other2.9%
Time zone UTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)
9795
PO box
9795
Area code 051

Colesberg is a town with 17,354 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, located on the main N1 road from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

Contents

In a sheep-farming area spread over half-a-million hectares, greater Colesberg breeds many of the country's top merinos. It is also renowned for producing high-quality racehorses and many stud farms, including one owned by renowned golfer, Gary Player, are nearby.

History

Founded in 1830 on an abandoned station of the London Missionary Society, and initially named Toverberg after a nearby hill, it was renamed Colesberg after Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, then Governor of the Cape Colony. [3] The site of the town lay on one of the well-travelled routes used by traders, hunters and explorers to gain access to the interior. Towerberg or Coleskop is a prominent hill near the town and a landmark easily seen from a distance by travellers.

Colesberg saw a large number of battles and skirmishes during the second Anglo-Boer War, and the Colesberg Garden of Remembrance is located just outside the town.

Another view of part of the main street Colesberg Main Street2.jpg
Another view of part of the main street

A number of 1820 Settlers established farms in the Colesberg district. Outnumbered as a religious group, some attended the Methodist Church and others the Dutch Reformed Church, where services in English were specially held for them. Anglican officials in Cape Town appointed Dr CEH Orpen as rector and the first services were conducted in the Court House and the London Mission Chapel, which became known as St Stephen's Church. In 1852 the construction of the Anglican Christ Church was started, having been designed by Sophy Gray, wife of the Cape Town bishop Robert Gray.

The Colesberg Bank was founded in 1861. [4] Michael Davitt wrote while documenting the Second Boer War, that the previous generation noted the village as a rendezvous for hunters and diamond miners. [5]

Past residents

Cityscape

Architecture

The town boasts many buildings that were built in a blend of Cape Dutch and Georgian architecture with ceilings of reed, and yellowwood timbers, and others that display a range of designs reflecting the changes of 19th century building. Originally plots were pegged out and sold on the site of the town to fund the building of the Dutch Reformed church.

Society and culture

Museums, monuments and memorials

A large number of Heritage Sites registered with the South African Heritage Resources Agency are located in Colesberg.

Economy

Farming in the area is dedicated almost entirely to horses and merino sheep. While in a sheep-farming area spread over half-a-million hectares, greater Colesberg breeds many of the country's top merinos. Colesberg is renowned for producing high-quality racehorses and many stud farms, including one owned by legendary golfer, Gary Player, are nearby. The ostrich-feather boom of the early 1900s, which left many farmers rich, is long forgotten.

The town has a thriving tourism industry, in part because it represents a rough halfway point between Johannesburg and Cape Town. [6] There is a hotel, a motel, and many guest houses and B&Bs around town, most having restaurants and pubs on-site. Several guest farms operate in the district offering accommodation with 4x4 trails, mountain bike trails, game hunting (mainly springbok, wildebeest and blesbok) and bird watching. Three major service stations with on-site shops, restaurants and toilet facilities are located on the N1 at Colesberg. Small industries are located in town, including a sheep abattoir, a factory which makes a range of furniture to order and a panel beater.

The Doornkloof Nature Reserve is located near Colesberg on the confluence of the Orange and Seekoei Rivers.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merino</span> Breed of sheep

The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the breed were not allowed, and those who tried risked capital punishment. During the eighteenth century, flocks were sent to the courts of a number of European countries, including France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Prussia, Saxony and Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midrand</span> Place in Gauteng, South Africa

Midrand is a former municipality in central Gauteng, South Africa. Situated in-between Centurion and Sandton, Midrand now forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">N1 (South Africa)</span> National road in South Africa

The N1 is a national route in South Africa that runs from Cape Town through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Polokwane to Beit Bridge on the border with Zimbabwe. It forms the first section of the famed Cape to Cairo Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graaff-Reinet</span> Place in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province and the fourth oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the centre of a short-lived republic in the late 18th century. The town was a starting point for Great Trek groups led by Gerrit Maritz and Piet Retief and furnished large numbers of the Voortrekkers in 1835–1842.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petrus Steyn</span> Place in Free State, South Africa

Petrus Steyn, officially renamed Mamafubedu, is a small farming town between Tweeling and Kroonstad, 35 km north-east of Lindley in the Free State province of South Africa. It is at the centre of an agricultural area known for wheat, maize, sunflower, potato, cattle, hunting, sheep production and forms part of the breadbasket in the Free State. It is the highest town above sea level in the Free State. In 2012 the town's name was changed to Mamafubedu. Farming industries in Mamafubedu provide potatoes worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winburg</span> Place in Free State, South Africa

Winburg is a small mixed farming town in the Free State province of South Africa.

Lückhoff is a small merino sheep farming town in the Free State province of South Africa. It was established on the farm Koffiekuil in 1892 and named after a Dutch Reformed Church minister Reverend HJ Luckhoff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middelburg, Mpumalanga</span> Town in Mpumalanga, South Africa

Middelburg is a large farming and industrial town in the South African province of Mpumalanga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanover, South Africa</span> Town in Northern Cape, South Africa

Hanover is a small town in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Named after Hanover in Germany, the town was established in 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Britstown</span> Place in Northern Cape, South Africa

Britstown is a small farming town situated in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, in the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality, Emthanjeni Local Municipality. The town is named after Hans Brits who settled here after he accompanied David Livingstone on a venture into the interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelspoort</span> Place in Western Cape, South Africa

Nelspoort is a town located in Beaufort West Local Municipality in the Western Cape, South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wepener</span> Town near Lesotho in Free State, SA

Wepener is a town in the Free State, South Africa, located near the border of Lesotho.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robertson, South Africa</span> Place in Western Cape, South Africa

Robertson is a town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, known as the valley of wine and roses, at the heart of the wine route - Route 62.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutherland, South Africa</span> Place in Northern Cape, South Africa

Sutherland is a town with about 2,841 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It lies in the western Roggeveld Mountains in the Karoo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaufort West</span> Place in Western Cape, South Africa

Beaufort West is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the "Capital of the Karoo". It forms part of the Beaufort West Local Municipality, with 34,085 inhabitants in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarkastad</span> Place in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Tarkastad is a Karoo semi-urban settlement situated on the banks of Tarka River in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Tarkastad is on a plain to the north of the Winterberg mountain range on the R61 between Cradock and Komani and only three hours from Gqeberha. The name Tarkastad is believed to come from the Khoi-Khoi word Traka or the Celtic word Tarka and the Afrikaans word Stad. The fact that the town is overlooked by Martha and Mary; two peaks which look like two women resting after a hard day's work, also lends to the name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bredasdorp</span> Place in Western Cape, South Africa

Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about 160 kilometres (100 mi) south-east of Cape Town and 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middelburg, Eastern Cape</span> Place in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Middelburg is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, in the Great Karoo. It lies in the Upper Karoo, 1,279 m above sea level, with a population of 19,000. It falls under the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality, in the Chris Hani District Municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvinia</span> Place in Northern Cape, South Africa

Calvinia is a regional town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa named after the French religious reformer Jean Calvin. The town falls under the Hantam Local Municipality which forms part of the Namakwa District Municipality. The Calvinia district is part of the Great Karoo region of South Africa. The town is just south of the Hantam mountains on the banks of the Oorlogskloof River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michiel van Breda</span>

Michiel van Breda was a South African farmer, founder of Bredasdorp, Mayor of Cape Town and a Freemason.

References

  1. Robson, Linda Gillian (2011). "Annexure A" (PDF). The Royal Engineers and settlement planning in the Cape Colony 1806–1872: Approach, methodology and impact (PhD thesis). University of Pretoria. pp. xlv–lii. hdl:2263/26503.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Main Place Colesberg". Census 2011.
  3. Raper, R.E. Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Human Science Research Council. p. 119.
  4. The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited. "Standard Bank Group – Historical Overview" (PDF). p. 2.[ permanent dead link ]
  5. Davitt, Michael (1902). The Boer Fight for Freedom. The University of Michigan: Funk & Wagnalls. pp.  357.
  6. Krige, Nadia. "South Africa's Halfway Towns". Traveller24. News24. Retrieved 29 January 2020.