This little town, situated beneath the slopes of the Katberg and Elandsberg Mountain Ranges was built in 1862 and started off as a military outpost called – 133 Elands Post. It was later named after Colonel James Seymour, the private secretary to the Governor of the Cape. A small village soon developed around the fort. Today, the village lies close to the Kat River Dam and is the terminus of a branch line from Fort Beaufort.
History And Architecture
Colonial Hotel: The ornamental colonial hotel building was built as an Officer’s Mess for the British Troops.
Elands Post: A fort, built in defence of the colony in 1846, is still intact.
History of Afrikaans: Seymour and the Kat River Valley are closely associated with the history of the development of the Afrikaans language. A Seymour magistrate, Louis Henri Meurant, wrote one of the earliest published works in Afrikaans. Also, the renowned “Kaatje Kekkelbek from Kat River”, the character created by Andrew G Bain and John Rex in their humorous song, instantly became a household name and her fame lives on to this day.
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