Greylingstad

Greylingstad is a small farming town west of Standerton in Mpumalanga, South Africa.HistoryEarly 20th centuryDuring 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. The town was founded in 1909 by the Dutch Reformed Church and named after PJ Greyling.Late 20th centuryIn 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.PresentThe farming community is still big and growing and the town not booming, but constantly doing business.