Malmesbury is a town of approximately 36,000 inhabitants in 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

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, about 65 km north of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. The town is the largest in the

Swartland The Swartland is a region of Western Cape Province that begins some north of Cape Town and consists of the area between the towns of Malmesbury, South Africa, Malmesbury in the south, Darling, Western Cape, Darling in the west, Piketberg in the ...

(‘black land’) which took its name from the

renosterbos ''Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis'', synonym ''Elytropappus rhinocerotis'', (commonly known as renosterbos or "rhinoceros bush") is a species of flowering plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae, endemic to South Africa. It is a very obvious component ...

('rhino bush'), an indigenous plant that turns black in the warm, dry summers. The area is especially known for its grain and wine cultivation as well as sheep and poultry farming. Malmesbury was named after

Sir Lowry Cole General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole (1 May 1772 – 4 October 1842) was a British Army officer and politician. Early life Cole was the second son of an Irish peer, William Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen (1 March 1736 – 22 May 1803), and ...

's father-in-law, the

Earl of Malmesbury Earl of Malmesbury is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1800 for the diplomat James Harris, 1st Baron Malmesbury. The son of the grammarian and politician James Harris, he served as Ambassador to Spain, Prussia, Russia ...

Settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

were encouraged to make their homes here because of a tepid sulphur chloride mineral spring that was renowned for curing

rheumatism Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including a ...

. The first farms were allocated in 1703. When the fifth Dutch Reformed congregation in the Cape was established here, it became known as Zwartlands-kerk (Swartland Church) but was renamed Malmesbury in 1829. The town acquired municipal status in 1860. The town no longer attracts the ailing because this aspect was never developed by the local authority, and today a shopping centre is located on top of the site with only a decorative fountain marking the location of the original spring.

Notable people from Malmesbury

* Charné Bosman * McNeil Hendricks *

Maggie Laubser Maria Magdalena Laubser (; 14 April 1886 – 17 May 1973) was a South African painter and printmaker. She is generally considered, along with Irma Stern, to be responsible for the introduction of Expressionism to South Africa. Her work was in ...

Pieter-Steph du Toit Pieter Stephanus du Toit (born 20 August 1992) is a South African professional rugby union player and two-time winner of World Rugby Player of the Year (in 2019, 2024). Du Toit plays as a lock or a flanker for the South Africa national team a ...

* Johan du Toit *

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball Coach (basketball), head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North C ...

* Marius van Heerden * Hennie Smit

Demographics

In 1911 the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' recorded the population of the town at 3,811; however, this may refer to a white population, as a census of 1849 recorded a total of 8,520 residents. The 1939 edition of the official statistical Year Book of South Africa records a total population of 4,856, with roughly half the population recorded as white (2,574) and half recorded as coloured (2,221). The following statistics describing Malmesbury are from the 2011 census. * Area: * Population: 35,897: * Households: 9,473:

Transport

Rail

Malmesbury lies on the main railway line between

Kraaifontein Kraaifontein is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa and is located on the north-eastern outskirts of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name originated from the large number of crows (''Kraai'' in Afrikaans) that ...

and

Bitterfontein Bitterfontein is a village in the Knersvlakte, the northernmost area of the Western Cape province of South Africa, north of Cape Town. It is the railhead of a line from Cape Town; ore from the copper mines at Okiep is transferred there from road t ...

, and its railway station marks the northern end of Metrorail Western Cape's

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

network. Metrorail currently operates services to

via

Kalbaskraal Kalbaskraal is a settlement in the Swartland Local Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was established in 1898 at the site of a railway junction for the narrow gauge railway to Hopefield and eventually Saldanha. Referenc ...

, Klipheuwel, Fisantekraal and

where the Malmesbury line joins the main

Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...

to Cape Town.

Road

Malmesbury lies along the N7 highway "Cape Namibia Route" which bypasses the town centre to the west and leads north towards

Moorreesburg Moorreesburg is a rural town situated about north of Cape Town, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was laid out in 1879 on the farm Hooikraal, was administered by a village management board from 1882 and attained municipal status in ...

Piketberg Piketberg (also sometimes spelt Piquetberg in the past) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa, located about 80 km east of Saldanha Bay. The original spelling of the name was "Piquetberg". The town is in the foothills of the Piketberg mount ...

Springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

and

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

and south towards

. The N7 intersects the R315 Bokomo Street, west of the town centre and the R45 interchange, north-west of the town centre. Malmesbury is also has at the centre of three regional routes including the

R45 R45 may refer to: * ''R45'' (EP), by Death Piggy * R45 (South Africa), a road * BMW R45, a motorcycle * , a destroyer of the Royal Navy * R45: May cause cancer, a risk phrase {{Letter-NumberCombDisambig ...

which passes through the town as "Voortrekker Road", "Loedolf Street" and "Piet Retief Street" from

Paarl Paarl (; ; derived from ''parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a city with 294,457 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest city in the Boland, Western Cape, Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni ...

(south-east) to

Vredenburg Vredenburg (; ) is a town of the Cape West Coast in the Western Cape province of South Africa. "Vrede" is Afrikaans for peace. It is the transportation and commercial hub of the West Coast area and administrative centre of the Saldanha Bay Local ...

(north-west), the R302 which passes through the town as "Voortrekker Road" from

Durbanville Durbanville, previously called Pampoenkraal, is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, part of the greater City of Cape Town, Cape Town metropolitan area. It is a semi-rural residential suburb on the north-eastern outskirts of the ...

(south), and the R315 which passes through the town as "Bokomo Street" from Darling (north-west). Voortrekker Road, designated as the R45 and R302 serves as Malmesbury's main street through the town.

Coats of arms

Municipality — Malmesbury was a municipality in its own right from 1860 to 2000. By 1931, the council had adopted an emblem depicting a plough in front of a sheaf of wheat, surrounded by a buckled strap inscribed ''Deo frumentoque vires''. This device was depicted on
cigarette card
issued in 1931. In 1963, the council assumed a coat of arms, designed by

Cornelis Pama Cornelis Pama (1916 - 1994) was a Dutch bookseller, publisher, heraldist and genealogist, who spent the second half of his life in South Africa. He was born in Rotterdam. During World War II, when the Netherlands were under German occupation, he ...

. It registered the arms with the Cape Provincial Administration in December 1963,Cape of Good Hope ''Official Gazette'' 3217 (20 December 1963). had them formally granted by the provincial administrator on 8 July 1966Cape of Good Hope ''Official Gazette'' 3354 (8 July 1966). and registered them at the

Bureau of Heraldry The Bureau of Heraldry is the South African heraldic authority, established in Pretoria on 1 June 1963. It is headed by a State Herald (known unofficially as the National Herald since 2004) and its functions are to register arms, badges, flags ...

in September 1969.National Archives of South Africa : Data of the Bureau of Heraldry
/ref> The arms were : ''Per chevron Sable and Gules, a chevron ermine between in chief two garbs and in base a sea-lion Or''. In layman's terms : the shield was divided by an ermine chevron, the upper half displaying two golden sheaves of wheat on a black background and the lower half a golden heraldic sea-lion on a red background. The sea-lion was evidently derived from the arms of

Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff Gustaaf Willem, Baron van Imhoff (8 August 1705 – 1 November 1750) was a Dutch colonial administrator for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He served as Governor of Ceylon from 1736 to 1740 and as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies fr ...

, who established the church from which the town developed. The crest was an upright spade between two rhenosterbos branches, and the motto, once again, was ''Deo frumentoque vires''. Divisional council — The Malmesbury divisional council, which administered the rural areas of the district outside the town, assumed a coat of arms, designed by

Ivan Mitford-Barberton Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) was a South African sculptor, writer and authority on heraldry. Early life and education Mitford-Barberton was born in Somerset East, in Cape Colony, in 1896. He was a descendant of several 1820 Settler ...

, on 24 June 1958.Western Cape Archives : Swartland Divisional Council Coat of Arms (4/SWL 4/1/5). The arms were : ''Per fess Sable and Azure, a fess wavy Gules fimbriated Argent between in chief an eagle displayed between two ears of wheat palewise Or and in base a sea-lion naiant per pale Or and Argent''. In layman's terms : the shield was divided horizontally into black and blue and displayed, from top to bottom, a golden eagle between two sheaves of wheat, a red wavy stripe edged in silver, and a gold and silver heraldic sea-lion.

Sport

Mother City SkyDiving operates out of a private airfield 12 km to the north of Malmesbury and provides a service for experienced sport

skydivers Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

, and offers Tandem Introductory Skydiving. Malmesbury has a variety of Sports Facilities including a Golf, Rugby & Bowling Club. The international organisation

Parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5K run, events for runners, walkers and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across five continents. Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinto ...

hosts a regular 5 km run for anyone to join for free.

Climate

References

{{Authority control Populated places established in 1745 Populated places in the Swartland Local Municipality 1745 establishments in the Dutch Empire