There is the ruin of a simple four room house in a valley on the property.
Presumably constructed 100 years ago by the original landowner, Mr Barnard, it
was built of available materials on site, i.e. dry stone walling held together
and plastered with a clay mix. The roof was flat with wooden roof timbers clad
with corrogated iron. Over the years the Fynbos encroached upon the house and a
fire through the valley burnt away the roof timbers and the wooden lintels over
the doors and windows, collapsing the roof and parts of the walls.
Accessible, now, only on foot, part of the building is being restored by Ken
Thomas as a shelter for visiting botanists.
Picture 1. The original state of the kitchen area August 1999
Picture 2. The start of reovations - a daunting task - as all materials have
to be hiked in on foot. For comparison note the steel peg outside the door.
New lintels were fitted and the walls rebuilt above them
Picture 3. June 2000. Work progressed slowly but here the roof was on this section of the building. Plastering of walls and floor still to be done.
Near the house is a well preserved example of a leopard trap or "wolwehokke". This being a small stone hut with a low entrance. The trap was baited with the entrails of a sheep, and once inside the animal was speared or shot through a small hole in the roof. |
There are the remains of other examples of small
dry-stone shelters on Silverstream, these presumably used by the sheperd as
temporary shelter against the strong winds which often prevail on the
Villiersdorp mountains.
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Copyright © 2000 Ken Thomas [email protected]