Page 18 - KBHA BULLETIN 5

15

Members of the military contingent began to acquire property in the vicinity of the camp to

accommodate their families and friends more comfortably. Sub-division of the farms soon
followed and a small village grew up near the camp to provide services to the military. Some

entrepreneurs moved from Cape Town to Wynberg – others were already there, and more erven
were sub-divided as the population increased and business ventures prospered. Other people

were attracted to the area, which was beautiful and was reputed to have a healthy climate. The
time of the property developer was at hand. Inns were established in Wynberg and by 1850 the

famous Rathfelder’s Inn drew many visitors from Cape Town and Simons’s Town.

The wagon road was well used and became a familiar route for local residents who visited the

False Bay coast to enjoy the sea air. Petrus Borcherds mentions this advantage in his Memoire.

One of the early coach services to the coast was run by the son of a successful Wynberg
entrepreneur, a baker named William Moore, and the other by Thomas Cutting, the son of a less

successful local entrepreneur who made good his father’s losses in this way. Cutting’s Omnibus
service monopolized the Cape Town –Simon’s Town run until the 1860s when the train line

reached Wynberg. (Fig. 2.1.) He continued to serve the Wynberg – False Bay route as Melville’s
Coaches for some years after that.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the link had been firmly established between Wynberg and False
Bay. Regular coach trips encouraged the connection and the extensions of the train line in the

1880s cemented the contact.

Family connections

The second factor influencing the Wynberg - Kalk Bay connection was established at a personal

level. People who had bought residential property at Wynberg were looking farther afield for
holiday homes on the False Bay coast. Many of them were affluent commuters who wanted to

live away from the city and they looked south for recreation. Some sought investment properties

at the coast and among these was Phillip Morgenrood, who was a considerable land-owner at
Wynberg and also bought a number of large stands near Kalk Bay. His daughter married Ds.

15