A Farming Community
Malmesbury is the principal town of the Swartland, some 60 km north of Cape Town in the Western Cape. Malmesbury was named in 1829, after the Earl of Malmesbury. The town was previously known as Zwartland but the governor of the Cape, Sir Lowry Cole, named it in honour of his father-in-law.
The Swartland region of the Western Cape extends from Darling near the west coast to Porterville in the east and Piketberg in the north. However, the landscape is not black, as the name suggests. The dusky rhinoceros bush that gave this region its name has been replaced by tilled fields in winter khakis and summer greens. The sandy, marsh and renosterveld (renosterveld is a ‘cousin’ of fynbos) vegetation erupt with spring flowers in season and can be enjoyed in all their splendour in the nearby Kalbaskraal Nature Reserve.
Malmesbury is the largest town and its grain silos leave you in no doubt as to its principal industry. Accordingly, the town boasts the country's oldest milling company, Bokomo, which was established in 1924. Tours are offered. Malmesbury has always been a farming community and it's still famous for its grain and wine as well as chicken and sheep farming.
Some of the attractions are various wineries in the area, historical buildings, the Kalbaskraal Nature Reserve and the annual food and wine festival in winter. Of historical interest are the Neo-Gothic Dutch Reformed Church, dating back to the early 1860s, the old Jewish synagogue of 1911 - now a museum depicting the development of the town and the history of bread and baking - and the Masonic Lodge (1866).
If you’d like to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, why not escape to the country from Cape Town into the Cape Winelands and...