The small boland town of Durbanville is situated 550ft above sea level, 27km from Cape Town and only 8km from Bellville. A thriving town of diversity, healthy climate, preserved cultural and natural heritage and tranquil atmosphere, Durbanville is indeed a town to know.
So lets get to know a little
more about this town called Durbanville. 1652 Jan Van Riebeek assigned the area known today as Durbanville, for farming and by 1719 there were 22 farms established in the Durbanville Area.
There are conflicting reports about the first namings of the area. One account states that on 15th August 1806, David Baird handed over 1 morgen of land toJoseph James who named the farm Pampoenkraal (fondly translated as Pumpkin Patch). Another report states that 2 morgen of land was handed over to Burgher Johannes Jacobus Uys and the Widow Roeland.
Uys, who was a filed cornet of the district of Tijgerberg, responsible for collecting tax returns, called the farm Johannesfontein. 2 morgen was a common size for tradesmen to work from and build their home, but Uys was later granted a further 36 morgen to add to the existing farm in 1812.
This property was later sold in its entirety to Melt van der Spuy Meyburgh in 1837. Being a well known outspan for farmers and tradesman traveling between Cape Town (known as De Kaap) and villages such as Stellenbosch and Malmesbury, it was only a matter of time before the community would begin to grow in this beautiful valley.
At the time, the only place for the Christian inhabitants of the area to attend Church, was either in Stellenbosh, or in Malmesbury - both situated well off and taking a good part of the day to travel by wagon. So the innovative residents banded together and wrote a petition to the Governor of the Cape asking permission to build a Church in Pampoenkraal.
On the 23 September 1824, 11 farmers petitioned the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset to grant permission for their Church to be built. Obliging, Lord Somerset set aside 3 morgen and 20 roeden of land for the Tijgerberg congregation to build their Church which was erected on the 6 August 1826 and still stands today.
For about fifty years the Durbanville area was known as Pampoenkraal before residents decided to petition the new Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban on 1 August 1836 to change the
name of their town to D'Urban. Our little town kept the name D'Urban until 1886 when, on request by the Dutch Church, the name was changed from D'Urban to Durbanville to avoid confusion with the already established town of
Durban in Natal.