Greylingstad

Greylingstad is a town about 100km south-east of Johannesburg, 58km north-west of Standerton and 50km south-east of Heidelberg. The name was first borne by a town established in 1910 about 5km south of the present one and name after a local pioneer Pieter Jacobus Greyling, step-son of Piet Retief. In 1914 the name Greylingstad was transferred to its present site laid out in 1913, replacing the name Willemsdal, after Willem Bezuidenhout, owner of the farm. The original town was vacated. In 1920 a town coucil was established.

During the Boer War the Scottish Rifles built a number of small forts overlooking the town and the farms beyond the hills. The Scottish Rifles laid out the initials “SR” on the hill overlooking the town, and it was always clearly visible from the main street of Greylingstad.

In the 1950s and 1960s the town had a flourishing farming community.

A major change came about in 1962 when ESCOM (now called ESKOM) erected a 88kV substation and the town, which had about 300 residents at the time, was connected to the main electricity grid.

When the main road between Johannesburg and Durban was upgraded in the 1960s, a bypass was built around Greylingstad which hurt the small businesses in town.

Source: Dictionary of South African Place Names, P. E. Raper 1987 ISBN 0 947042 06 7 Source: Wikipedia