Page 63 - Bulletin 20 2016

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were able to carry on because they had alternative sources of income from outside the area.
One of these was George Smith who continued to run his profitable plumbing and iron works
business in Cape Town, all the while working with his sons to develop the potential of the
farms. One venture Smith started up was a lime burning business with his second son, George
Arthur Thomas William Smith, c. 1890. This came to be known at the Cape Point Lime and
Cement Works and, as in the case of McKellar before him, burned limestone from the rich
travertine deposits found at Booi se Skerm – just south of Paulsberg on the False Bay coast –
rather than seashells. Here they constructed a lime kiln similar to the one McKellar had built
at Buffels Bay. Exporting their lime by sea, this initiative seems to have prospered due to the
building surge in Cape Town leading up to and into the years of the South African War.
Following these boom years, however, the economy slid into recession and with it the
demand for lime (90) . (Figs. 2.23 - 2.25.)

A further encumbrance to the development of Smith’s Farm was the lack of a decent road
into this area. The traditional route was via the precipitous Redhill road from Simon’s Town
to the Klaver Valley and then through Cape Point gap and down onto the Smitswinkel Flats.
There was also a foot / bridle path along the False Bay coast from Miller’s Point which
turned inland upon reaching Smitswinkel Bay.

Following the untimely death of Arthur Smith in 1903 the youngest of the Smith brothers,
Norman Henry Smith, came in to manage the Buffelsfontein homestead and fishery at Buffels
Bay. Still, with the recession setting in, work on the farm is said to have been laborious with
little meaningful profit. Then, with the start of the First World War this situation began to
improve. Prompted by the military authorities to better provide for the defence of Simon’s
Bay and the Cape Point Lighthouse, the coastal road from Millers Point was taken through to
Cape Point where units of the Cape Mounted Rifles were based during the war. This made
travel to Cape Point practical for motor vehicles and what had before been a trickle of
visitors, now became a steady stream. (Figs. 2.26 - 2.31.)

To accommodate this growing trade Smith made extensions to the Buffelsfontein homestead
to better serve as a tea-room and provide visitor accommodation. He also built a holiday

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