Rayton is a town in North-Eastern

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

which started out as a tin shack mining town on the farm Elandshoek. During its boom days the town served the needs of thousands of diggers and prospectors working for the Schiller, Montrose and Dunmore mining companies. A mini

diamond rush A diamond rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area where diamonds were newly discovered. Major diamond rushes took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in South Africa and South-West Africa. Diamond rushes by chron ...

sparked by

Sir Thomas Cullinan Sir Thomas Cullinan (12 February 186223 August 1936) was a South African diamond magnate. He is renowned for giving his name to the Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever discovered, and as owner of the Premier Mine, now renamed the Cullinan ...

's discovery of a

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known to be the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an diamond called the Star of ...

diamond pipe (which has since been named

Cullinan Diamond Mine The Premier Mine is an underground diamond mine owned by Petra Diamonds in the town of Cullinan, east of Pretoria, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Established in 1902, it was renamed the Cullinan Diamond Mine in November 2003 in celebrati ...

) nearby is what caused the town to boom.

History

The original Rayton Junction was laid out along a spur of the main NZASM railway line, which was completed in 1895 to connect the Republic of Transvaal's capital,

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

to the port in

Delagoa Bay Maputo Bay ( pt, Baía de Maputo), formerly also known as Delagoa Bay from ''Baía da Lagoa'' in Portuguese, is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique, between 25° 40' and 26° 20' S, with a length from north to south of over 90&n ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. Officials in the "Montrose Diamond Mining Company" did the town planning and named the hamlet after Lady Rachel Ray Williston, wife of the company's first manager, Colonel Balliston. The town's first—and at the time the only—brick building was the original magistrate's office, which dates from this early time. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Italian prisoners of war were interned at Zonderwater just north of town, and massive military logistics and supply depots were established between Cullinan and Rayton. After the war, the Stella Diamond Mining Company bought the land around the town and declared a peri-urban municipality with relatively cheap properties. Rayton's proximity to Pretoria's expanding eastern suburbs allowed steady growth from the 1970s into the latter part of the 20th century. Today, Rayton is a thriving town that serves the need of prison wardens at the nearby Zonderwater Prison, staff at the

Cullinan diamond mine The Premier Mine is an underground diamond mine owned by Petra Diamonds in the town of Cullinan, east of Pretoria, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Established in 1902, it was renamed the Cullinan Diamond Mine in November 2003 in celebrati ...

as well as the surrounding farming community, with the Willem Prinsloo agricultural museum celebrating the area's rich agricultural history on the farm

Kleinfontein Kleinfontein is a culturally segregated, Afrikaner-only settlement near Pretoria, South Africa that was founded in 1992. Members of the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance youth have denounced the settlement and the continued exist ...

. Many settled town residents have found employment in surrounding suburbs of Pretoria.

Demographics

Racial makeup

Notable people

Jan Ellis Jan Hendrik Ellis (5 January 1942 – 8 February 2013) was a South African rugby union player who represented the Springboks in 38 tests, which at his retirement in 1976 was a record. His 7 test tries equalled Ferdie Bergh's record for forwards ...

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm v ...

loose forward who played 38 tests for South Africa until 1976. * Bennie Labuschagne: 1992 Olympian, three-time African champion, Commonwealth Games medallist and named one of South Africa's six ''Wrestlers of the 20th Century'', now Head Coach of

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

's wrestling club.

References

External links

Rayton, SA-Venues"The Diamond Express", Friends of the Rail
{{City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality Populated places in the City of Tshwane Mining communities in South Africa