The quaint, small town that is home to South Africa’s oldest pub

Founded in 1820, Bathurst was one of South Africa’s smallest municipalities and home to the oldest continuously licensed pub in South Africa, the Pig and Whistle. 

Bathurst, which has now been integrated into the Ndlambe Municipality, is found a half-hour’s drive from Grahamstown, or 10 minutes from Port Alfred. It is home to just a few thousand residents.

The small village’s excitement centres around one street corner, where one can find a few small antique stores, bookstores and restaurants.

Bathurst, founded on the left bank of the Kowie River, was established as a frontier town in an area of intense conflict between white settlers moving north and African pastoralists and refugees from Mfecane moving South. 

It became a white settlement in 1820 and was named after the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Henry Bathurst. 

It was supposed to serve as the administrative capital of the Albany settler country, but this was moved to Grahamstown due to its superior location. 

The oldest building in Bathurst is the Powder Magazine, which was built by the military before the settlers arrived. 

The building still stands today, and its strategic viewpoint on a hilltop provides uninterrupted views of the countryside. 

The village is known for its preserved, centuries-old buildings, including South Africa’s oldest unaltered Anglican Church, St. John’s. 

One of the oldest residential buildings in Bathurst, Morley House, dates back to 1828. It was built for blacksmith Thomas Hartley and is one of the few buildings that survived the Sixth Frontier War in 1834.

Strolling around the village, many of the homes display old Victorian-era names, such as Bleak House and Bradshaw Mill. 

The town has maintained most of these historical buildings, so it looks much like it would have in the 1820s.

When settlers arrived, they struggled to grow crops. This was until the village planted its first pineapple in 1865.

Now, the pineapple has become the crop staple of the town, with several pineapple farms surrounding the small village centre.

The Pig and Whistle

These farms hide an interesting history. The pineapple farms provided the perfect cover for small-scale cannabis cultivation.

During strict, apartheid-era drug laws, the village’s fertile land and relatively low police presence made it the ideal location to grow the illegal drug.

Many families grew cannabis alongside subsistence crops to make ends meet, trading it for groceries, school fees or farm supplies. 

Bathurst is also home to the world’s biggest man-made pineapple. The four-storey pineapple-shaped building is big enough for visitors to survey the local farms from the crown of the fruit. 

The farming town has become a beloved tourist attraction; however, when visiting the town pub, the Pig and Whistle, signage points out that Bathurst is not a farming town, but a “drinking town with a farming problem.”

The pub was built by Thomas Hartley in 1821 and first opened as the Bathurst Forge. In 1831, it was converted into a pub.

The pub has changed hands many times over the years. In 1853, Jeremiah Goldswain bought the pub for his son-in-law.

He added rooms where the forge had been and tuned the establishment into an Inn, called the Bathurst Arms. 

The pub and Inn was renamed The Pig and Whistle in World War II by servicemen from the nearby air school.

According to the pub, the airmen named the pub after their own drinking hole back in England. The word “pig” referred to a drinking peg, which determined how much monks and their guests could imbibe from a beer tankard. 

“Whistle” was a reference to the old English word “wassail”, which means an alcoholic beverage or to enjoy oneself. Today, the Pig continues to serve food and drinks to travellers and locals

In addition to the pub, Bathurst is also home to the carefully restored Bradshaw’s Mill. Built in 1821, the building was used as a wool mill. Today, it is one of the few working water wheels in Southern Africa.

The town has become home to a few hundred retired academics, artists, eccentrics and pineapple farmers. 

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