Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum
Opening Hours
Admission daily: 07:30 – 16:00 (Except Christmas Day & Good Friday)
Note: The restaurant is currently closed.
Reach Us
R104 Old Bronkhortspruit Road, Rayton, Cullinan,1000
Tel: 012 492 5808
Bookings for education programmes: 012 492 5808
Email: info@ditsong.org.za
Admission bookings: wpguide@ditsong.org.za
About the Museum
The DITSONG: Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum preserves and presents South African agricultural history in a unique manner. The Museum showcases the history of the development of agriculture in South Africa from the Stone Age until 1945.
The Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum is located on the farm Kaalfontein. It can be reached using the old Pretoria-Bronkhorstspruit Road (R104), off the N4 on the Cullinan/Rayton (R515) turnoff. The farm belonged to Ms Miertjie le Roux (née Prinsloo) and three generations of Prinsloo ancestors.
Miertjies’s great grandfather Willem Prinsloo (nicknamed Willem Wragtag) was a big game hunter and bartered skins, ivory and horns for the farm Modderfontein on the Witwatersrand. Gold was discovered later at Modderfontein, and he sold the farm to a mining company. With the money, he purchased various Bushveld and Highveld farms, including the farm Elandsfontein, which his daughter later inherited. After the discovery of diamonds on Elandsfontein, the farm got sold to Thomas Cullinan, who founded the Premier Diamond Mining Company (1902).
Willem Wragtag also bought the farm Kaalfontein in 1889 but never lived there. His son Lang Willem Prinsloo, and his family, lived on Kaalfontein.
Miertjie le Roux inherited the farm Kaalfontein and lived in the 1880 dwelling on the old farmyard until 1976. When Miertjie’s brother died in 1976, she donated 16 hectares of the farm, including the 1880 dwelling and outbuildings, to the National Cultural History and Open-air Museum.
A few years later, the National Cultural History and Open-air Museum purchased a portion of the adjacent farm on which the 1913 and 1927 homesteads are.
The development of the Museum started in 1976 with the construction of the main building and storage areas. The Museum officially opened on 29 March 1980.
Indoor exhibition area – exhibitions include a formal display on the history of the development of agriculture in South Africa and exhibits of vehicles of yesteryear such as donkey and horse carts, carriages, coaches and spider carriages. Various old agricultural implements will bring back pleasant memories to many visitors.
Visitors can explore the 1880 and 1913 dwellings, outbuildings and three reconstructed Ndebele homesteads from various eras. The historic farmyard also has a variety of domesticated farm animals such as Colebrook pigs, Painted Persian sheep, Afrikaner cattle and indigenous chickens.
Visitors are offered unique public and curriculum-based educational programmes. Guided tours are presented to school groups (of all ages) and adult groups.
Demonstrations are hands-on and include:
Milking a cow
Plucking a goose
Making tallow candles
Making clay oxen
Baking bread in an outdoor oven
Roosterkoek
Fun rides
Pricing (Minimum 10 people)
Tractor Ride: R 15.00 pp
Clay oxen: R 5.00 pp
Rooster koek: R 10.00 pp
Candle making, with take away candle R 30 pp
Prior bookings are essential.
Homemade bread: Half loaf R 35.00 (minimum 10 loaves)
Jam (350 ml) R 35
Mampoer is also for sale R40 for 20 ml, R 90