Page 118 - Bulletin 19 2015

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never have been in his name. It should have been in the name of Tregidga and Mossop and
this was corrected after Mrs. Struck signed an affidavit in 1904.

Dalebrook House occupied a large erf and had a tennis court on the side nearest the Church.

(Fig. 3.7.) In 1910 and 1917 Tregidga & Mossop had improvements done to what was a very
popular 16-room boarding house. On the 4 January 1918 a fire started in the thatched roof.

Driven by a south-easter it took hold and Dalebrook House burnt to the ground. Being
holiday season it was full but fortunately no one was hurt. After the fire, Council took the

opportunity to build Dalebrook Road along the middle of the original erf, and the land on

either side was divided into 10 separate erven and sold off.

Thomas Wiersma, a building contractor, bought an erf (89647) for £300 and built four flats in

a double storey building he called Dalebrook House. It was bought two years later for £3,025

by James Donnelly who had emigrated from County Armagh in Northern Ireland. The name
‘Innisfail’ is of Gaelic origin and has been described as a poetic name for Ireland. Donnelly

extended the building and opened the Innisfail Hotel in 1920. The Donnelly family owned it
from 1920 until 1968. (Fig. 3.8.)

All the other lots in Dalebrook Road were sold in 1918 to, among other people, E O

Rathfelder and W W A Molteno.

Rockcorry

E O Rathfelder bought the plot at the bottom left of Dalebrook Road and in 1920 this was

transferred to Dr C P Smuts who built a house there that he named Dalebrook. On the
opposite corner, on erf 89649, the house Rockcorry was built by Charles Stewart Ferguson, a

wealthy merchant from County Monaghan in Ireland. He named it after a town near where he
was born. (Figs. 3.9 & 3.10.) The property was registered in the name of his son Terence

Corry Ferguson. Thomas Stewart Ferguson died in 1933 leaving an estate of £68,777. His
wife Harriet continued to live there until her death aged 81 in 1940 leaving an estate valued at