Page 182 - Bulletin 19 2015

179

later on 28 November 1938 at The Homestead Main & Ley Road, St James. She was only 43
and as mentioned there were 3 young sons. As can be imagined her death must have been a

terrible blow – and to complicate things further the family had contracted for another house

to be built at the same time on the lower Lot.

The Periwinkle (erf 89605 – 8 Main Road) was also the work of the architect Sherlock and

was an innovative design with three bedrooms above and no less than five garages on the
ground floor. Given how few cars were around at that time this was far-sighted. Plans to the

value of £1,500 were passed and the work completed on 15 November 1938, also by Samson

Contracts – two weeks before Helena died. The Periwinkle was actually built as a single
storey because this lot had a height restriction of one storey in favour of Mount Granville.

[The amended plan numbered 54172 has not been seen]. (Fig. 3.71.)

In terms of her Will, Helena’s husband Austin Henry Ashley-Cooper inherited both
properties then valued at £3,500. Helena was a religious woman with strong views on the use

of alcohol. There was an unusual provision in her Will regarding one son. He would only
inherit £50 if he could prove to the satisfaction of a Church Minister that he had not touched

alcohol (except for medicinal purposes) before he was 21. The Ashley-Coopers owned these
properties until they were sold to Margharita Roberts in 1943.

Petrava

The next house to be completed, and perhaps the grandest and in some ways the most
mysterious, was Petrava, high up on Boyes Drive. It seems no story of this area can be told

without involving a Molteno! Minnie Evelyn Molteno is central to the early history of the

land Petrava came to be built on. She was born on 13 of May 1876, the first-born of Sir John
Charles Molteno’s third marriage. She was thus the half-sister of Thomas Anderson’s wife

Maria. By all accounts as a young woman she was kept on a tight leash by her mother Lady
Sobella Molteno and there was an instance in 1904 when she disappeared completely in