BARBOUR & THORNE (PTY) LTD
Estate Agency in Welkom

Today we are a major player in the Property Market, specialising in all aspects of Real Estate including Residential, Commercial and Industrial Sales, Letting and Property Administration. Dealing us with gives you the assurance of top quality service by qualified agents, backed by a Management Team who are serious about all Property related matters, ensuring customer satisfaction with the best results. In 1949 Walter Burton Thorne, affectionately known as Wally, joined the Anglo American Welkom Township Company and was sent to Welkom to join the Anglo team in the process of creating a brand new town in the center of the newly developed Goldfields. The Welkom Township Company had been established to create the infrastructure required to support a mining industry of six mines, each with several mining shafts. The manager of the Welkom Township Company was a Mr Ron Barbour, a gentleman who had been an Anglo man all his life and was nearing retirement. Alan Roberts is recorded to have said in an Odendaalsrus hotel that night, that someday, someone with faith would continue to drill and discover a rich gold deposit there, little did he know that only 11 years hence, that same borehole would be drilled a further 400 feet to discover one of the richest gold ore deposits in the Goldfields. After experiencing much resistance to development, Anglo American bought the farm Welkom, from the de Kok family and promptly set about designing a new town. Joanne Pim was appointed to design the parks and gardens in the new town of Welkom, a town known as a town within verdant gardens, and an oasis of beauty in the middle of the Orange Free State. Welkom was clearly to become an important town in South Africa; it produced 21% of all the gold in the free world. The property division of the Township Company had as their primary task, the responsibility of creating private ownership of property in the township that would enhance the feeling of permanence and stability in the town. The first houses were built in 1950 on the Southern side of stateway in Doorn. These two young inhabitants of Welkom Aubrey and Wally met when Wally moved into the next door room at Nyala House, the only accommodation in Welkom for single gentlemen employed by Anglo American. Accomodation was scarce in the young town but Wally had befriended a young lawyer, Jannie Wessels, who had started the first legal practise in Welkom in They were folk who attended the Methodist church regularly, where Fay played the organ and conducted the church choir for almost 45 years. Wally served as a charter member of the Rotary Club of Welkom during which time he and Fay hosted various exchange students and visiting Rotarians from all over the world, nurturing them in their home away from home. Wally was 26 years old when he started the business with very little capital to his name. Pioneer House was the only privately owned building with available offices and soon the decision to move into two 15m² offices was made. This was the basis upon which Barbour & Thorne was founded; honour and trust, good old fashioned values that even today have stood the test of time. After Ron left the business, his brother Bill joined Wally at Barbour & Thorne and hence the name remained unchanged. Barbour & Thorne added property administration to their already established sales and auctioneering divisions and Insurance was soon added to the total offering together with a Permanent Building Society Agency. He had been assigned to the South African Armoured Division in 1944 and sent to Italy for the latter part of the war. Over the years Barbour and Thorne occupied various premises throughout the town. In 1963, Jannie Wessels convinced Wally and Bill to move the business to his building in Currie House. We look forward to more growth and the possibility of establishing our Barbour & Thorne Brand in other centres and cities in South Africa as the manpower and expertise allow.