©2009 Full Circle Magazine.
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September 2009 Vol6 No9
full life
Anne Browne
Playing on the beach
Water’s Edge
by Anne Browne
As you walk along the beach from
Seaforth Restaurant, Simon’s Town,
towards Boulders, you come across a tiny
secluded beach with a large white house on
the edge of a private beach – well, private
from the high waterline up.
The walls steeped in memories of laughter,
fun, holidays and weddings, you might wonder
who this priceless treasure belongs to É
Water’s Edge has been our family holiday
house for the last 100 years and, we hope, for
the next 100!
In the mid-1890s, my grandfather’s brother’s
journey from Rondebosch ended up at Simon’s
Town station, where he stepped off the train
and walked along the shoreline, avoiding the
Dockyard, to find a corner sheltered from the
Southeaster.
Just past Seaforth beach he found a small
stone house, with a veranda several metres up
from the beach, tucked away in its corner, out of
the wind. He bought it and it became his family’s
holiday home for the next 15 years or so.
His brother, my grandfather, ER Syfret,
bought it from him in 1910, because he said he
couldn’t afford it any more. Between 1910 and
1914, my grandfather enlarged it by building on
the capacious veranda, with two changing rooms
underneath, and adding a few feet on either end
of the cottage to make it a bit roomier.
My grandparents lived in Newlands. Behind the
house in the back garden, they had a stable-yard
with a cowshed for the cow and a stable for the
horse. Every morning Martinus, who looked after
both animals, would lead the cow out and along
Palmyra Road and down a road to the right that
led down to a field which Grandad rented, where
she spent the day, until he went to lead her home
again to be milked.
When the family moved down to Simon’s Town
for the summer, they booked the van on the train,
and Martinus would lead the cow down to
“Every morning martinus
would lead the cow out and
along Palmyra Road”
Newlands Station at the right time. Both of them
would climb on board. At the end of the line, he
would lead his charge along the main road to
Waters Edge and settle her down in the field. He
slept in one of the rooms in the outbuilding behind
the house and the cow would provide the milk for
the household every day. The youngest son, who
was still in his last years at school, would ride the
horse down to Simon’s Town for the duration of
the holiday.
My grandmother took over the running of
Water’s Edge from 1910 until she died in 1936.
She let it out to families of the officers of the R.N.
ships which were here for three or four years at
a time on the South African Station. But her
proviso always was that they should vacate the
house from December to March so that her
family could move in for their summer holidays. I
don’t know where they went to, but they always
complied!
From the time my sister and I were born (1922
and 1923), each year we would come down from
Natal: my parents, my sister and me. This house
and beach are part of the family psyche!
We lived for 10 years in England, but made
every opportunity to come out here on holidays
with the children. Water’s Edge’s is very much
part of their lives as well – they can think of
nowhere else they’d rather be!
I am of the same opinion, so I have come to be
here until I die! Water’s Edge is still well
sheltered from the Southeaster which was why it
was chosen by my great-uncle all those years
ago!
1895-1910 My mother, Gladys (left) & aunt Doris (right)
2009 Water’s Edge
