History of the Estate and Surrounding Area...

The estate is named after the previous owner, George Heys who purchased his Mpumalanga farm, Tudor Estates in 1904, soon after the Anglo Boer war had ended. Mr. George Heys, a highly successful general dealer and stagecoach owner, lived in Pretoria in Melrose House, now a national monument and a museum. The treaty of Vereeniging, ending the war, was signed in this house. His farm, at the turn of the century stretched from the highveld above Heysbrook through much of the Elands Valley towards Ngodwana. Pru Cowie, his great, great granddaughter is still one of the owners of Tudor Estates. Tudor Estates head office is still domiciled in Tudor Chambers on Church Square, Pretoria, one of the earliest buildings to be built on the square.

The Heysbrook valley is littered with archaeological evidence of previous inhabitants. The oldest of these are the iron-age stone kraals, which are some 300 years old. There are several hundred examples of these around the estate with some on the higher ground in an exceptionally good state of repair, with little or no damage being inflicted upon them over the years.

Artifacts are fairly readily accessible in the form of grinding stones and evidence of their iron smelters. We do ask that any artifacts found be left where they lie for future visitors to discover and enjoy.

Additionally, there are a number of fortifications and some blockhouses built by the British during the Anglo Boer War of 100 years ago. This is immediately evident as one enters the estate, seeing the remains of the walls of what was supposedly a British jail. The small windows are still secured by iron bars and there are iron hoops set into the floor of this structure. There are several examples of fortifications high up on the hills where there is a commanding view many kilometeres down the valley towards Ngodwana as well as across to Waterval Boven, some ten kilometer away. Bullet cartridges and shell casings are infrequent, though not uncommon findings. Once again please do not remove these artifacts.

In addition to the old gold mine (see under Activities) Heysbrook is supposedly the resting place of a missing Long Tom Cannon. The South African Defence Force has spent several months in recent years exploring the gorge, looking for the missing cannon. Two British soldier's (fighting in the Anglo-Boer War) diary accounts make reference to witnessing a Boer Commando pushing a cannon over the edge of the gorge near the waterfall. Two Africans (one of whom is still alive), working as sheep minders, maintain they saw a barrel and steel wheel in the river some seventy years ago. A further documented reference to the cannon is that of a hunter (now dead) who wrote in his diary that he stood on the barrel of a cannon in the 1960's "In the Airlie gorge". Some historians doubt that the cannon is in fact a Long Tom, though any such find will be exciting indeed!

The Waterval Onder graveyard is adjacent to Heysbrook and accommodates burials from around the turn of the century. There are some fifty British soldiers buried under their iron crosses. Willie has some very spooky (and very real) stories to tell...including the well-documented tale of Lt. John Lawler of the Inniskillin Fusiliers and a nurse who have continued their illicit romance years after being killed in an attack on Waterval Onder in 1901.