Page 189 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

William Searle (1842 – 1914) was born in Devon and suitably named his new home

"Devon Cottage". He went insolvent in 1908 and the executors of his insolvent estate sold

the property to neighbour William Pocock in September 1908 for £605. William Pocock
did considerable improvement to "Devon Cottage" and sold it to George William Forrest in

1919 for £3000. (D.T. 14860). Forrest, a true-bloodied Scotsman, changed the name to
"Corriemar". Corrie is a Scottish word for circular hollow on a mountainside (which in fact

does exist behind the cottage), and mar is the abbreviation for mare – the sea. Forrest died
in 1928 and his Estate sold the property to Leah Cumes for £3310. Gaisford Harrison

bought the cottage in 1936 for £3000 from Leah Cumes. He bequeathed it to his daughter,

Paddy, in 1953, and it remains with her to this day. (National Monument, 22 February
1991).

Ceolnamara

Farther along the road on the Muizenberg corner of Braemar Road stands "Ceolnamara",
No. 20 Main Road. This was once the property of the well-known hardware merchant G. S.

Withinshaw, who owned five Main Road properties between No. 8 "Condover" and No. 22
"Colwyn".

An old thatched cottage which stood on this property was used as a store for builders' plant
and material. (Fig. 4.4). This caused the Building Survey Dept. of the Cape Town City

Council considerable concern as the building was in a nearly permanent state of dilapi-
dation. It was a single storey building of stone with a thatched roof. The external walls

were 18" thick. It had no ceiling and the doors and windows were in dire need of repair.
The floor at the rear was at least 3 ft. below the existing ground level, and the south side

had a wood-and-iron closet. It was regarded as very unsightly and prejudicial to the

properties in the immediate vicinity, but the interesting fact is that this could well have
been Dr. Henry Bickersteth’s holiday home when he visited St. James, circa 1850. Dr.

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