Page 69 - Bulletin 21

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Renovation of the Old Stable and Kraal

In 2004 we renovated the old stable and kraal, turning them into a cottage with a small

garden. Before renovations the building was in a poor state of repair with a flat zinc roof. We
were not sure where to begin until we found a photo of sisters Thelma and Leonora de Stadler

with their Christmas bicycles c. 1934. (Figs. 2.50 – 2.52.)

Roads

The preferred road used by Christina Diemer c. 1743 to deliver fruit and vegetables via oxen

to Simon’s Town was Die Zandweg. She describes it as running from Slangkop (Imhoff’s
Gift farm) and behind Poespaskraal. It is assumed that Pieter Henkes (farmer of

Poespaskraal) seventy years later also used Die Zandweg from Poespaskraal to deliver
vegetables and fruit to the Royal Navy ships in Simon’s Town. How did he link to Die

Zandweg? From 1864 to 1930 the de Stadlers kept a road open which they referred to as The

Old Wagon Track and drove their wagons along it to collect Basboom, and also as an access
into Glencairn to visit their family who owned Oaklands Farm.

In the 1970s John Wood cleared the Old Wagon Track and the family used it regularly for

recreation. In May 2016 family members re-discovered the Old Wagon Track in all its glory
and sometime later discovered a possible link to an existing mountain track. There is clear

evidence of another road behind the old Homestead which was possibly made for
transporting stone from the quarry on the Roodeberg. (Figs. 2.53 & 2.54.)

Trees and plants

These were a necessity and integral to the livelihood, landscape and establishment of a
farmstead, and one of the reasons why farms sprang up on the south side of the Steenebergen.

They are an important part of the story.

Pepper trees were traditionally planted on farms in the drier regions of the Peninsula. There

are many on Poespaskraal. The early Dutch settlers used to plant pomegranate trees to form
hedges around their farmsteads. We have a few remaining on Poespaskraal and one in

particular, which even features prominently in a Tinus de Jongh painting of the homestead, is