Jamestown, also known as Webersvallei ("Weber's Valley") plus Mountain View, is a quiet rural settlement on the southern outskirts of

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronouncing Gazetteer.
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in the Cape Winelands District of the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

province of

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. It is situated next to Blaauwklippen Vineyards, on the eastern side of route R44 from

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Somerset West Somerset West () is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality Eastern Suburbs zone (formerly called ...

and the Strand coastal resort. The main access from the R44 is via Webersvallei Road, the main road in Jamestown with ''watererven'' – long, narrow agricultural plots on the south bank of Blouklip River – on the north side of the road and residential plots on the south side of the road.

History

Over time, Jamestown has transformed from a

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occ ...

village into a primarily residential area as residents have sought work elsewhere in order to survive. A heritage committee was established in 2010 to document the history of Jamestown for the benefit of future generations, to restore old buildings and to facilitate increased involvement in local festivals and commemorative events.

The village was named after James Rattray (1859–1938), a Stellenbosch businessman who owned a butchery in Dorp Street. He was the grandson of

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

teacher James Rattray (c. 1795–1864) who immigrated to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

in 1822, one of several

British people British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, w ...

recruited to the colony by Scottish missionary George Thom at the request of the governor

Lord Charles Somerset Lord Charles Henry Somerset PC (12 December 1767 – 18 February 1831), born in Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it ma ...

. In 1902 Rattray and

Rhenish The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy Roman Empir ...

missionary Jacob Weber (1856–1937), who was born in

Lennep Remscheid () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south side of the Ruhr area. Remscheid ha ...

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and sent to Stellenbosch in 1882, acquired a portion of the Blaauwklippen farm. The land was divided into plots and sold to

coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

families, and most of the associated debt was paid off within twenty years. Street names such as Everbearing, Festival, Nared, Pajaro, Rolinda, Tiobelle, Titan, Torrey, Tribute and Whiteheart in the residential area are based on

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

varieties, after the main crop grown there since 1902. Other crops grown there include beans, lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes. Despite Weber's role in the establishment of Jamestown, it is not a

mission station A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...

per se. The Rhenish Mission Church built in 1823 is situated next to ''Die Braak'', the common in the Stellenbosch town centre. A small church was inaugurated in Jamestown in 1923, which initially also served as a school for the area. Some of the villagers served in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1946 JGC Williams opened the General Dealer in Webersvallei Road, which closed its doors in 2012 when his sons retired. Jamestown was designated a coloured area under apartheid segregation laws, and the majority of the residents were not subjected to forced removals. The 1970s saw the first tarred road and the arrival of electricity for those who could afford it.

Dominoes Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called ''Pip (counting), pips ...

were traditionally played by the men in the village. The Burnley soccer club established in 1932 and the Young Gardens soccer club in 1940 merged in 1973 to form Jamestown Aurora Athletic Football Club. Jamestown has a long musical tradition which is a source of community pride. Christmas is a particularly busy time for the Jamestown Christian

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first a ...

established in 1967, which was preceded by the Jamestown tickey band.

Further development

Jamestown was incorporated into the greater Stellenbosch Municipality in 1994. Post apartheid the area experienced considerable

rezoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a ...

and

property development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to oth ...

, targeted primarily at the luxury real estate market and not well integrated with the original residential area. The area has also seen the growth of

informal settlement Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state. As such, the info ...

s inhabited by agricultural labourers who work on surrounding farms and their families.

Notable people from Jamestown

*Keenan Davidse – professional golfer *Joyene Isaacs – head of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture (appointed January 2002) *Marie Stander – figurative and portrait artist

Notes and references

External links

{{Cape Winelands District Municipality , state=expanded Stellenbosch Populated places in the Stellenbosch Local Municipality Populated places established in 1902 1902 establishments in the Cape Colony