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THE WYNBERG – KALK BAY CONNECTION

Helen Robinson

Introduction

I have always been intrigued by the close association which has existed between Wynberg and

Kalk Bay, but I have never before developed this idea beyond the references which I have made
to the municipal connections in my book: Beyond the City Limits - People and Property at

Wynberg 1795 – 1927.

In the course of my research, I have come to the conclusion that there are three main reasons

why Wynberg developed from an area of scattered farms, inhabited by families and their slaves
in the eighteenth century, to a substantial village settlement in the nineteenth century and, by its

end, to an influential municipality. In my opinion, all these factors reinforce the association with
Kalk Bay.

The establishment of the Military Camp

In the latter part of the seventeenth century, three farms were granted in the area which became
known as Wynberg. These were Oude Wijnbergh, from which the settlement took its name;

Vriedenhof to the south of Wynberg Hill; and Rust en Werk to the east of the present Main Road
(then the wagon road) to Simon’s Town.

Between 1795 and 1800, a major military camp was established at Wynberg by the British
during their first occupation of the Cape and remained there throughout their subsequent

ownership of the Colony. Wynberg was a logical halfway point on the wagon road from Cape

Town to False Bay where safe harbours were established at Simon’s Town and, later, at Kalk
Bay. It was an arduous two day journey and many travellers spent the night in the Wynberg area,

encouraging the idea that Wynberg was the halfway house on the road to False Bay.

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