Rickety Bridge story. In 1847 Pepler sold the farm, really a collection of smaller farms, to a chap called du Toit who paid a deposit but agreed a mortgage of £500 for the balance with Pepler. Du Toit also arranged a loan of £1000 from Paul de Villiers of Boschendal, Paulina's father and his own father-in-law, giving himself a debt of £1500 on a property he had bought for £1125, and set about farming. In 1860 the bottom fell out of the wine business and du Toit was left with a debt of £1500 on a property valued at £580 - negative equity!! Du Toit declared bankruptcy and the piece of the farms that included what is now Rickety Bridge was bought at auction by Willem Jacobus Dirkse van Schalkwyk, the husband of Francina Hester de Villiers. The farm was owned by the van Schalkwyks from then until 1953.

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