Greytown is a town situated on the banks of a tributary of the Umvoti River in a richly fertile timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

-producing area of KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

History

Greytown was established in the 1850s and named after the governor of the Cape Colony

Cape Colony

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

 Sir George Edward Grey

George Edward Grey

Sir George Grey, KCB was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony , the 11th Premier of New Zealand and a writer.-Early life and exploration:...

 who later became Premier of New Zealand

Prime Minister of New Zealand

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...

. A Lutheran church was built in 1854. A church bell which was brought to the town for the Dutch Reformed Church

Dutch Reformed Church

The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...

 in 1861 to summon worshipers. The Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 congregations was the centre of a series of theological arguments and the church bell was stolen and buried, only to be found 74 years later upon the construction of some cottages near the old church. A strikingly designed Town Hall was opened in 1904. In 1906 following a poll tax and other oppressive measures imposed on the Zulus, the Bambatha Rebellion

Bambatha Rebellion

The Bambatha Uprising was a Zulu revolt against British rule and taxation in Natal, South Africa, in 1906. The revolt was led by Bambatha kaMancinza The Bambatha Uprising was a Zulu revolt against British rule and taxation in Natal, South Africa, in 1906. The revolt was led by Bambatha kaMancinza...

 took place.

The final resting place of Sarie Marais

Sarie Marais

Sarie Marais is a traditional Afrikaans folk song, created during either the First Anglo-Boer War or the Second Anglo-Boer War . The tune was taken from a song called Ellie Rhee dating from the American Civil War, and the words translated into Afrikaans...

 is at Greytown. Sarie was a legendary Voortrekker woman who died, aged 37, with the birth of her 11th child and is immortalised by the eponymous song, an indelible part of South African culture.

Louis Botha

Louis Botha

Louis Botha was an Afrikaner and first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa—the forerunner of the modern South African state...

, the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

 General and first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa

Union of South Africa

The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...

, was born on a farm 5 km south of Greytown. The old farmhouse was destroyed by British Forces during search and destroy operations. Louis Botha led the Boer forces during their famous victory over the British at the battle of Spionkop.