Somerset West is a town in South Africa’s Western Cape. As a suburb of the Helderberg region, it is administratively and organizationally part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality (formerly called Hottentots Holland). Somerset West’s vehicle registration code is CFM, and the postcode is 7130 for street addresses and 7129 for post office boxes.
History
Somerset West was established in 1822 on the grounds of the historic farm Vergelegen. Somerset was named after Lord Charles Somerset, a British governor of the Cape Colony in the 1800s, with the suffix ‘West’ added after 1825 to distinguish it from Somerset East, another South African town in the Eastern Cape. Sir Lowry’s Pass, named after later governor Sir Lowry Cole, was built in the 1830s to connect the town with outposts further east across the Hottentots-Holland mountains.
The AECI factory between Somerset West and Strand was the world’s second largest dynamite factory in the 1960s.
Is Somerset West a wealthy neighborhood?
Somerset West has long been popular with wealthy older buyers looking to relocate from upcountry, as well as many German buyers looking to invest in second homes or retire to the country.
Is it possible to get snow in Somerset West?
The climate in Somerset West is Mediterranean. This is due to the cold Gulf Stream. The winter months are quite cold, with a lot of precipitation. Snowfall is common in higher elevations with corresponding temperatures.
Is the weather pleasant in Somerset?
The county has a temperate maritime climate, with summers that are warm rather than hot and winters that are cool to cold. Somerset rarely experiences extremely severe weather, so it can be visited all year. In Bath, the hottest month is July in the summer and the coldest month is January in the winter.
