Clanwilliam is one of the ten oldest towns in South Africa and produces two proudly South African products namely Rooibos tea and red vellies (field shoes). Rooibos tea is known internationally for its distinctive taste and health benefits.

There is also a touch of blue in Clanwilliam – more specifically on the outskirts of the town – in the shape of the Clanwilliam dam, built on the Olifants River in 1935. One of the largest dams in the Western Cape, it provides irrigation for farmers downstream all the way to Vredendal.

Thanks to irrigation schemes, citrus farming took hold along the Olifants River. Oranges form part of Clanwilliam’s coat of arms – inspired also by the coat of arms of the Clanwilliam clan of Scotland – and it is here where Dr P. le Fras Nortier, the father of the seedless orange tree, and his friend Dr C. Leipoldt, the famous poet, spent their childhood years.

Clanwilliam, inland of the West Coast in the Western Cape, was originally established by settlers brought over from Britain by Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape Colony from 1814, with the plan to populate the province with English-speakers. Most of the settlers moved away, as the semi-arid conditions proved too harsh for them to successfully cultivate the land.

Those that remained included surnames such as Foster, Freyer, Shaw and McMahon, and even though they were a small group, they played a leading role in the area until the first half of the previous century.