Henley on Klip Accommodation

The village of Henley on Klip is situated next to the R59 between Johannesburg and Vereeniging. The village was founded in 1904 by Advocate Horace Kent who was born in 1855 in Henley on Thames, England, and came to South Africa in 1898. Strangely enough the area where Henley on Klip is located, reminded the Englishman of his hometown, Henley on Thames. Kent, in conjunction with the Small Farms Company, bought the land from a Mr. Van Der Westhuizen, for a price of 5000 Pounds, and the land was divided into smallholdings from 1 to 80 acres (320,000 m2). In was in 1904 that the Small Farms Company decided to build the Kidson Weir on the Klip River in Henley on Klip. The weir was named after Fenning Kidson, the grandson of an 1820 settler. Fenning was educated in England, but returned to South Africa as a young man and became a transport rider, a contemporary of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. Soon after the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War, news came to Kidson that a commando was on his way to his farm to arrest him. Under the noses of the Boers he escaped, riding sidesaddle, his burly frame crammed into his wifes riding habit. He finally made his way to Natal, but returned to the Transvaal after the war, settling in Henley on Klip with his wife, Edith. The family home was named Tilham, which is the manor house on the river at the corner of Regatta and Shillingford Roads.

A number of markets are held throughout the village on the last Saturday of the month. These include, Art on the Lawn on Regatta Rd, the Wyetti Craft market on Wargrave Rd and on the first Saturday of each month there is the New Henley Market at The Bowler, (Henley on Klip Bowling Club) on the corner of Winchester and Hearn roads in Henley on Klip.