Bathurst is an agricultural town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, situated along the R67 Provincial Route, approximately 15 km north-west of Port Alfred and 41 km south-east of Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown).
The town was named after Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, by Sir Rufane Donkin.
Bathurst falls within the Ndlambe Local Municipality and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality.
It is a 10-minute drive to the beach town of Port Alfred, and 45 minutes from
The town’s chief claim to fame is that it was the early administrative centre established by the British Government for the 1820 British Settlers who were sent to the district as a buffer between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa pastoralists who were migrating southwards and westwards along the coast.
Many of the original settler houses and other buildings have been preserved, and there remains much of the look and feel of an English village of the early 19th century.
Bathurst is home to the oldest continuously licensed pub in South Africa. The Pig and Whistle Inn, at the heart of the village, is reputedly the oldest extant pub in the country, built in 1821 by Thomas Hartley, a blacksmith who came from Nottinghamshire with the settlers. After accommodation was added to the pub, it became known as the Bathurst Inn. Legend has it that it was nicknamed “The Pig & Whistle” by the men at the nearby 43 Air School in World War II.
While time has moved slowly in Bathurst, it has attracted those seeking a more peaceful lifestyle, academics (Rhodes University is only 40 km away), and retirees.
The town is also a growing number of artists in Bathurst. Amongst them, award-winning potter Richard Pullen established his studio in 1998.
Bathurst is known as pineapple country, and it is therefore not surprising that the town hosts a pineapple museum whose building is shaped like a 17 metres (56 ft) tall pineapple. The museum is located on a pineapple farm known as Summerhill Pineapple Farm, an 1820 Settlers farm.
In 1833, John Hawkins, who was a founder member of the Bathurst Agricultural Society, purchased the farm for 2,000 pounds. He was also one of the first farmers to plant pineapples. The Big Pineapple represents the region’s pineapple industry. The settlers who arrived in the 1820s struggled to grow crops until the first pineapple was planted in 1865.
The gigantic structure is a tribute to their agricultural success. It was planned to be constructed by the members of Bathurst’s agricultural community in the 1980s. Construction for the structure actually began in 1990 and lasted for over 12 months. The structure was built with the intention of giving more exposure to the local pineapple industry.
The Bathurst area delivers over 135,000 tons annually to factories in East London. Although it is mostly a copy of the Big Pineapple located in Queensland, Australia, the Big Pineapple in Bathurst is taller by just over two feet and thus is the World’s Largest Pineapple. The structure has four floors, including a gift shop with a variety of pineapple products, a museum covering the history of pineapple farming in South Africa, a video room, and an observation deck with views over the surrounding farmlands to the Indian Ocean. The “skin” of the Big Pineapple is steel and concrete, covered in glass fibre.
Bathurst neighbours the Waters Meeting Nature Reserve, home to many species of animals, bird and plants. The reserve offers hiking trails, picnic spots, and a viewpoint of the river and valley. The surrounding area hosts pineapple farms, game reserves, and cattle and sheep ranches.
