Page 147 - Bulletin 11 2007

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Apparently, the very white type of sandstone found in the Lakeside area had been
noticed by Sir Herbert Baker during the years when he had his house, ‘Sandhills’, at

Muizenberg. When he came to build the new Barclays Bank on Adderley Street in 1930
he wanted what he called ‘Lakeside sandstone’, but it was to be found in sufficient

quantities only in Michell’s Pass near Ceres. A quarry was opened there by

stonemasons J. A. Clift & Co. of Paarl for that purpose. (Weekend Argus, 6/3/1976).

Kalk Bay Quarry

At Kalk Bay, on the slopes of van Blerk’s Estate approximately above Woolley’s Pool,
a small quarry was worked briefly from late 1900 to late 1901, first by a Mr Thomas

and then by Messrs. Hopkins. The stone was of good quality and one contract was for

stone for the Huguenot Memorial Hall. However, as distinct from the other quarries,
this one was close to existing houses and the general noise, blasting, accumulation of

rock debris associated with stone dressing, and the trolley track, caused inconvenience

and led to complaints. The final straw was the dislodging of a boulder weighing some
2½ tons which rolled down the mountainside nearly to the Main Road, narrowly

missing the home ’Quarrie’ of Mr W. F. Bergh, the main complainant. Councillors were
also concerned about the disfiguring of the mountainside. (Wynberg Times, 20/10/1900

& 21/9/1901).

The quarry had ceased operations by October 1901 but its existence survives in a few

small quarry faces and mounds of stone on the slopes, in the name of Quarry Road
running past the old Ladan home, ‘Schoonzicht’, and the names of the neighbouring

homes ‘Quarrie’ and ‘Rockleigh’.

References

Admiralty Naval Works Loan Department: Simon’s Town Dockyard Extension. Album

of photographs, Simon’s Town Museum.