The four farms of 1704

In 1704, after a visit by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the first four farms in the Riebeek Valley were granted: Goedgedacht, Kloovenburg (then often written Clovenburg), Allesverloren and Vleesbank.

Kloovenburg went to Jan Botma on 26 September 1704. Vleesbank went to Hendrik Venter. Allesverloren went to the widow Catharina Cloete, and its homestead was burned in the conflict of that time, which is said to have given the farm its name: all is lost.

More than three hundred years later all four names survive. Kloovenburg and Allesverloren are wine estates, Goedgedacht is an olive farm and community trust, and the Vleesbank land is linked to Du Vlei on the R46.

Driving into the valley, you pass through the heart of these old grants. Much of the eastern part of Riebeek Kasteel village stands on land that once belonged to Kloovenburg.