Of Afrikaans origin, the name means 'storm marsh'.

[1] As of 2011 the town's population was 987 people living in 282 households.

In 1841 the farm came into the ownership of cousins Laurence and William Twentyman.

They were good businessmen and developed here at the intersection of the route from the Cape to the eastern districts of the Cape Colony and of the route from the interior (via Kogmanskloof, Ashton and Bonnievale) to the sea at Agulhas a popular stopover.

There was a wagon maker and a blacksmith, stables, a mill and even a post office, a police station and a prison.