and built two churches in the town. Here they lived together in peace, harmony and religious tolerance. Surviving features Many of the town's original buildings and features have survived, including the original leiwater (irrigation) system of street furrows, the town kraal and dipping tank, a blacksmith's house and forge, the school's boarding house and the extensive public commonage crisscrossed by walking, hiking and cycling paths that surround the town. There are also two old churches, along with some of the earliest cottages built between 1854 and 1860 in Vigne Lane and at the end of Vlei Street, together with an old shepherd's cottage built prior to 1840, which is now incorporated into "The Old Potter's Inn" building on Greyton's Main Road. Village changes The entrance to the town was not originally where it is today for the road came directly from Genadendal over the hill, and past Boschmanskloof, entering the town at the intersection of Main Road and Ds Botha Street. There, the De Villiers family built a trading store in 1860, as well as several communion rooms used by Dutch Reformed Church members who came to town for communion once a month. The town's first post office was opened in the building where The Post House pub trades from today. Economy Following Herbert Vigne's death in 1895, Greyton, like many Overberg towns, lived through harsh economic times that characterised the turn of the century. Many people left to make their fortunes elsewhere. Sending crops to Cape Town for sale was no longer viable. There were few jobs, families were large and people became impoverished. But the long narrow plots that defined the layout of the town continued to provide a food source for families, as well as a place to keep livestock for domestic use. The Vigne descendants subdivided more land at the present entrance to the town, on which several large Victorian houses were built and still stand today. Opposite them, a very old flat-roofed building that was used for the first Anglican church services, was made into a Moravian school. It is now the town library. Group Areas Act During the 1950s, the town was torn apart by the implementation of the Group Areas Act. Coloured families who had lived together for a century with neighbours of all races, were forced to sell their homes and farmland. Some left the town for good. Others relocated to new