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rights to the Silvermine spring and piped its water to the farm to irrigate her crops, and
also serve her farmhouse.

By 1890 the railway had reached Fish Hoek and the station was close to the farmhouse.

This made it easy for people from Cape Town to spend a day at the beach and they were

soon asking for permission to camp on the farm-land. In 1901 Hester de Kock married
Jacob Izaak de Villiers who came to live at Fish Hoek with her. As the years passed she

started letting rooms in the farm house and, seeing that people wanted to stay at Fish
Hoek, she also converted the barn and coach house to rooms. Cottages on the land were

converted for visitors, including the building on the site of the old Watch House, later to
be known as Uitkyk.

When she died, in 1914, she left a very detailed Will stating, amongst other things, that
should her husband outlive her the land was to remain in trust for him to live there until

his death, after which it was to be sold off as building plots. Being a shrewd

businesswoman, she had realised that selling plots for building would bring in more than
selling the farm as a whole and so her heirs would be better off.

The Homestead

The farmhouse on Fish Hoek Farm was probably built around 1822 by Englishman

Thomas Palmer. The central section, Bellevue, was built in the traditional Cape Dutch

style, E-shaped and with gables. (Fig. 5.1). A later owner added a wing called Goede
Hoop and another built a coach house known as Brighton. After Izaak de Villiers’ death

it was inherited by two of his daughters who lived there briefly before selling it. In 1919,
it became the Homestead Hotel and, being right on the beach, it was very popular. An

annex with two gables, which still exists, was built on in the late 1920s. (Fig. 5.2). The
hotel was proud to proclaim to patrons: “It is perfectly safe here for your children; they

do not even have to cross the road to reach the beach.” In 1945 the original farmhouse