Page 113 - Bulletin 19 2015
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changed under the British when land became a marketable commodity and was sold off in
large parcels with land title or allocated as quitrent grants. The early sub-divisional pattern in
Kalk Bay is shown in Fig. 3.2. The Quarterdeck Area lies largely within Erf 89659 which
was sold on 9 August 1816 to Frans Petrus van der Schyff for 7,000 guilders (£175). It has
the shape of a ‘kinked’ rectangle of about 25,000 sq. m. (2.5 ha) and its boundaries
influenced the alignments and positions of the future Main Road and the later Quarterdeck
Road; the southern boundary adjoined Erf 89684, sold in 1817 to Cornelis Gysbert Verwey
and later became the Holy Trinity Church property; and the northern boundary lay slightly
beyond today’s Kimberley Road.
The 1816 sale of Erf 89659 included buildings, one of which was named as a toll house. This
corroborates the site of the toll gate shown on the DEIC map. The stream in the drawing,
along with a scale, confirms that these buildings are on the site of later buildings known as
Millwood and Beaufort Cottage. They would have been amongst the earliest buildings in
Kalk Bay. (Fig. 3.3.) A specific condition in the original deed was that the sale of liquor was
forbidden and no wine or tap-house was permitted.
Malcolm Cobern in his book Story of the Fish Hoek Valley (p. 118) says that after the toll
house at Muizenberg was taken over by the British for military purposes in 1795 a toll house
was opened at Kalk Bay on the 20 January 1797 and remained there until 1815. He also says
that toll tariffs were set originally by the DEIC and then by the British. The role of toll holder
was hired out to anyone prepared to take on the job. The holder then made his living from the
tolls and from the profits was supposed to maintain the road – in this case as far as Simon’s
Town. It is not surprising that over many years there were constant complaints about the state
of the roads.
From other research we know that the last toll holder at Kalk Bay was the same Cornelis
Gysbert Verwey who applied for and was granted the adjoining Erf 89684 which ran from the
later Holy Trinity Church boundary southwards towards Belmont Road. (see Bulletin 17 –
Die Dam – A Social History.)