From top: Aerial view of Somerset West with Helderberg Mountain; left: Vergelegen Estate; during the winter; Left: The Old Lourens River Bridge is a provincial heritage site; Right: Erinvale Estate.
Somerset West (Afrikaans: Somerset-Wes) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the City of Cape Townmetropolitan municipality as a suburb of the Helderberg region (formerly called Hottentots Holland).[2]
The vehicle registration code for Somerset West is CFM and the post code is 7130 for street addresses, and 7129 for post office boxes.
History
Main Road Somerset West in 1909.
A cattle post was established here[clarification needed] by Dutch soldiers in 1672.
A town developed around the Lourens River (originally "Tweederivier", which means "Second River"; "Eersterivier", meaning "First River" passes through Stellenbosch, some 16 km (9.9 mi) to the north) and the farm of Vergelegen (Dutch: "remotely situated"), an 18th-century farmhouse built in the historic Cape Dutch style by Willem Adriaan van der Stel, governor of the Cape and son of Simon van der Stel, who gave his name to the nearby town of Stellenbosch. Willem Adriaan was later sent back to Holland after being charged with corruption and cruelty towards local Dutch farmers. The farm is now owned by a subsidiary of the large mining company Anglo American, who have restored the farmhouse to its original magnificence and continue to produce some of South Africa's best wines there.[citation needed] The farm is open to tourists.
Somerset West was founded in 1822 on part of the historic farm, Vergelegen.[3] The town was named Somerset after a British governor of the Cape Colony during the 1800s, Lord Charles Somerset, with the suffix 'West' being added after 1825 to differentiate it from Somerset East, another South African town in the Eastern Cape. In the 1830s, Sir Lowry's Pass, named after later governor Sir Lowry Cole, was constructed to link the town with outposts further east over the Hottentots-Holland mountains.
In the 1960s, the AECI factory between Somerset West and Strand was the second largest dynamite factory in the world.[citation needed]
Geography
Somerset West is located on the N2 about 45 kilometres (30 mi) east of Cape Town and 20 kilometres (10 mi) kilometres south of Stellenbosch. The town borders Strand and Gordon's Bay and is overlooked by the Helderberg Mountain (meaning "clear mountain"), a part of the Hottentots-Holland range of mountains. The Hottentots-Holland mountains surround Somerset West in an amphitheatre shape.
Suburbs
Somerset West includes more than 65 suburbs covering a large area of 61.37 square kilometres within its administrative boundaries, extending from the satellite areas of Firgrove to the west and Sir Lowry's Pass Village to the east. It includes the following suburbs:[4]
Somerset West as a large town is not only the main retail centre for the Helderberg region but for further surrounding towns such as Grabouw, Botrivier and Stellenbosch too.
Somerset West is largely served by Somerset Mall situated adjacent the N2 freeway and serves the largest shopping centre in the Helderberg region. A number of other local retail shopping centres can be found in Somerset West’s suburbs and surroundings, including: Helderberg Mall, Somerset Value Centre and The Sanctuary which are situated in the vicinity of Somerset Mall as well as Waterstone Village Shopping Centre, Vergelegen Plein and Sitari Village Mall.[5][6][7][8][9]
Tourism
Somerset West offers several tourist attractions due to its position on the Hottentots-Holland mountains and between the Cape Winelands and the nearby beaches of Strand and Gordon's Bay.
Wine
Somerset West forms part of the Helderberg Wine Region which is a wine-producing sub-region of the greater Stellenbosch Wine Region. Helderberg includes wine estates such as include 96 Winery, Alto, Audacia, Annandale, Cavalli, Ernie Els, Grangehurst, Guardian Peak, Haskell, Hidden Valley, Idiom, Ken Forrester, Klein Welmoed, Le Riche, Longridge, Lourensford, Lyngrove, Miravel, Morgenster, Peter Falke, Post House, Somerbosch, Uva Mira, Vergelegen, Vergenoegd and Waterkloof.
The most popular and nearest wine estates amongst the many surrounding Somerset West are Vergelegen and Lourensford. The Vergelegen Wine Estate lies on the border of Somerset West, spanning into the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve. The buildings on the estate constitute fine examples of Cape Dutch architecture.
The Lourensford Wine Estate which neighbours the Vergelegen Wine Estate features the Lourensford Market[10] and a Sports car museum known as MOTOR Studio.[citation needed]
Festivals
Every December, the town has a display of Christmas lights erected atop the street lights of the Main Road. The Helderberg Lights Festival (aka the Strawberry Festival), a flea market and parade, normally complements these lights.
Nature
The Helderberg Nature Reserve,[11] a 363 hectare natural wildlife preserve opened in 1964, contains a wide variety of smaller fauna (small antelope, tortoises and other reptiles) and indigenous flora such as Protea and fynbos.
Guest Houses & B&Bs
In recent years[when?] many guest houses and B&Bs have opened up in Somerset West, since it is conveniently located for Cape Town (45 kilometres (28 mi) away on the N2 motorway), the beaches at the Strand and Gordon's Bay, and the Western Cape's numerous wine farms.
Growth
In recent years, Somerset West has become a much sought-after town to live in the Greater Cape Town metropolitan area, experiencing growing demand for secure country living and as a result the town has significantly expanded with new gated communities to the west and east.
The most notable developments are situated west of Somerset West (eg. Sitari Country Estate, Croydon Vineyard and Olive Estates and Kelderhof Country Village) which have largely occupied what was once vast open land, slowly closing the gap isolating Somerset West from the rest of the metro.[12][13][14]
Another notable development in Somerset West, is the mixed-use precicnt of Paardevlei situated on the southern periphery of the town and includes a new private hospital owned by Busamed.[15]
The major attraction and reason why property is sought-after in Somerset West is because it is an self-sustained area, offers a semi-rural lifestyle and sweeping views over False Bay, is within commuting distance from Cape Town (approx. 40 min) and Stellenbosch (approx. 20 min) and is in close proximity to the beaches of Strand and Gordon’s Bay and the wine farms of Stellenbosch.
Education
The town has a range of primary and secondary educational facilities.
Somerset West's considerably far distance from Cape Town within the metropole means that the railway remains an important link to the city and therefore transports huge numbers of commuters every day.
Roads
The N2 is the main route through Somerset West, mainly bypassing the town to the south. It runs east–west from Grabouw and George to the R102 intersection just on the outskirts of Somerset West as an at-grade road before continuing towards Cape Town as a dual-carriage freeway.
The R102 is the original N2 serving the same function before the construction of the freeway segment and runs from the western outskirts of Somerset West towards Kuilsrivier. The R44 runs north–south from Stellenbosch to Somerset West and then runs west–east along the coast from Somerset West towards Strand, Gordon's Bay and Kleinmond.
Somerset West is also served by four metropolitan routes linking it to surrounding towns and cities in the City of Cape Town. The M9 links Somerset West with Macassar and Khayelitsha to the west and with Sir Lowry's Pass Village to the south-east. The M149 links Somerset West with Strand to the south. The M153 links Somerset West with Strand in the south. The M156 links Somerset West with Firgrove to the west.
Taxis
Somerset West is served two kinds of taxis: metered taxis and minibus taxis. Unlike many cities and towns in South Africa, metered taxis are not allowed to drive around the town to solicit fares and instead must be called to a specific location. Metered taxi companies operating in Somerset West include Uber, Bolt, InDriver and Didi.
Minibus taxis are a major form of public transportation in Somerset West and the majority of minibus taxis terminate at the Somerset West Taxi Interchange/Terminus in the CBD.
Municipality (1) — Somerset West was a municipality in its own right from 1904 to 1996. The council approved its first coat of arms on 23 April 1935.[17]
Municipality (2) — In 1953, the council approved a new design, by Ivan Mitford-Barberton and H. Ellis Tomlinson. This was in response to a Cape Provincial Administration circular calling on municipalities to have their arms checked and, if necessary, re-designed to make them heraldically correct. The arms were granted by the College of Arms on 25 November 1953. They were registered at the Bureau of Heraldry in June 1994.[18]
The arms were: Azure, a portcullis chained Or; on a chief of the last a setting sun Gules (i.e. a blue shield displaying a red setting sun on a golden stripe across the top, and a golden portcullis with chains below it). The crest was a golden demi-lion holding a vine, issuing from a red mural crown charged with three golden rings. The motto was Prorsum sursum. The design is canting: the portcullis comes from the Somerset family arms, and the setting sun denotes the west.
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