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Date: pre 1902 Type: Hotel Status: Extant   Click to view large map Coordinates: 26°47'46.86" S 28°56'06.26" E Alt: 1582m

See more photographs The façade has remained much the same as in the old days. This section of the hotel has its original mud walls and was completed before 1896. Initially, there was a sand road in front of the Val Hotel. One of the proprietors, Mr. Pape, owned a parrot. Whenever an ox wagon came past the hotel, they would halt promptly at the whistle of the parrot. Needless to say, the parrot was not very popular among farmers trying to get 16 oxen on the move on a sand road, which was no easy feat. [Extracted from the Val Hotel website, visit them for more information] Transcription of Blue Plaque HERITAGE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA HISTORIC MEETING AT THE VAL HOTEL On 6 April 1902, General Louis Botha, as representative of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, arrived at Val by Cape cart with a small escort. Under a safe conduct, he was to board a special train furnished by the British to take him to a meeting in Klerksdorp with President Steyn and other Boer leaders. Before boarding the train, in the typical traditional democratic Boer fashion, a meeting was held in the voorkamer of the Val hotel opposite the station. This was to explain to a number of Boer commandants and officers about the first tentative steps that were being taken to effect a cessation of hostilities in the Anglo Boer War. It was to take a further seven weeks before the Peace of Vereeniging was finally signed at Melrose House in Pretoria at close to midnight on 31 May.