The Robins at Rickety Bridge

Once in occupation, Robin Singer and Deb discussed using the old name Paulinas Dal but after some heart searching decided to stick with Rickety Bridge.

Next, Debs wrote, we called in the University who came and dug around a bit without uncovering much of interest. The house had been messed about a lot during the fifties, a wing had been put on at the back of the right hand side of the house as you look at it from the front, and there was a dreadful temporary lean-to on the other side at the back. We had to demolish those altogether. The windows all along the front stoep had no reveals and had been made taller, so their proportions were all wrong, and the gable itself was a mess as far as proportions went. By the way, the fleur-de-lys motifs on the label come from the gable, used like notes of music, as the Robins on the label are singing - just a pun on Robin Singer's name.

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Singer at Rickety Bridge

I'm writing these notes to introduce some of the people I met as a journalist before starting to write novels. The story of Rickety Bridge and it's occupants is, of course, a story in itself and I was privileged to be asked to research it. In some ways it led me into the kind of village stories I enjoy writing. Anyway, let's get on.

When Robin Singer took over the farm, his objective was not only to make a good wine but to create a recognisable brand and develop a market.

He set about doing this with his partner Deborah and during the two years they were there managed to leave some mark of their presence.

The robins on the gate and on the wine label are reminders of their occupancy and Robin managed to introduce wines to a number of quality outlets including the Mount Nelson and, in Franschhoek, Le Quartier Francais.

The old rickety bridge had become even more rickety and as clients were reluctant to venture across it, had to be replaced.

Not being a wine maker, Robin recruited a vintner, the first incumbent, an American, proving less able than his recommendation. The second, David Lockley, from Blaauwklippen, proved a master his wines found their way on to the tables of discerning wine drinkers.

To entice the growing number of tourists coming to Franschhoek to sample the wines they were making, Robin built the first proper wine tasting area on the farm.

When contacted, Robin Singer introduced Deborah and her lively notes were a pleasure to read.

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Selling Rickety Bridge

The McNaughts leave. In the end, age caught up with Nigel's father and he had to give up doctoring to run the agricultural side of the farm. Not a difficult decision because he had become disillusioned with how medicine had become a money making business but a decision that reduced the family income.

The McNaughts struggled on for some time but by 1995 it had become obvious the only solution to the heavy drain of their overdraft was to sell up and move.

Visiting them at Stoney Brook farm, which has proved a good move and is now a successful wine farm and winery, busy with tourists.

One of Joy’s recollections is of Mina, who saw Paulina's ghost at Rickety Bridge, making tea and forcing her to sit and eat when things were getting out of control. Like anyone who has come in contact with Mina, Joy can not praise her enough.

The McNaughts sold the renamed Rickety Bridge to Robin Singer, whom Mina described as a Scotsman and a nice man. Is that so unusual?

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Rickety Bridge and Stoney Brook

What income they did have, and any money they could scrape together, the McNaughts spent on improving the farm’s production capability. Their first step being to uproot the pear trees and plant vines.

Joy, with her three children, moved onto the farm, leaving Nigel doctoring to pay the bills, and started to learn to make wine. Her experiences are recorded in the book she has written – Headlong into the Red. She tells of how she called Nigel in tears to say she was resigning . Nigel’s reply was that she wasn’t allowed to resign, that he had a consulting room full of patients and she’d better just get on with things.

Having met Nigel in Joy’s company, this repost is a reflection of the financial strain rather than their close relationship. 

Heesom had for some time been at Zorgvleit and the Sanddrift manor house – now renamed Rickety Bridge, had again fallen into less than perfect condition. Joy tells of lying in bed one night and wakening to find she could see the stars through a hole where the roof thatch had blown off.

Some of the McNaught’s hard earned money was spent on improving the labourer’s cottages, unfortunately not to a standard Joy would have considered acceptable but to the absolute limit of what money was available.

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Farming lessons at Rickety Bridge

I'm dipping into the my old files of Rickety Bridge history and they include one or two interviews. One I particularly enjoyed was the McNaughts who were then at Stoney Brook farm and doing rather well after their Rickety Bridge experience. When they bought Rickety Bridge, they were living and working in Grahamstown; Nigel as a doctor and Joy teaching at St Andrew's school.

They were both from Cape Town and on a visit to the Cape, Nigel found that Sanddrift/Rickety Bridge was for sale at an attractive price.

When Joy asked if they could afford it, Nigel told her that if they sold everything they had, borrowed from all their friends and took a mortgage they could just manage.

At first, Nigel’s father and mother moved on to the farm, Nigel’s father harvesting the fruit and sending it off to market. Unbeknown to them, pear sizes were critical and the price of grade 3, the smallest, didn’t cover the cost of sorting and instead of the expected cheque the McNaughts got a bill.
Undeterred, they stuck to the plan and learned more lessons about farming.

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Rickety Bridge winery

Checking my files I found that I had not finished with the original Paulina as her ghost was seen walking through the house. The Heesoms, Mother and Father had gone out to a function and a young woman called Mina was babysitting when, in the early hours of the morning a young woman of about twenty five, with long fairish hair and wearing a long white period dress, walked through the room. Mina mentioned the woman was attractive and seemed happy to be in the house. Mina mentioned she, herself, felt comfortable, not threatened, as if it had been no more than another member of the household who had walked through the room. As Paulina died at twenty six it is assumed she visits the house from time to time. One hopes she is pleased with the alterations and refurbishing of the house since her time. 

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When Heesom moved to Zorgvleit in 1988, he sold the farm Sanddrift to the Mc Naughts, who renamed the farm Rickety Bridge. The McNaughts managed, under severe financial constraint, to replant and revive the making of wine on the farm but, by 1995, were obliged to sell.

Robin Singer took over from McNaught and his partner, revamped the manor house and continued to improve the property as a wine farm, regretfully having to replace the original ‘rickety bridge’ as it had become so rickety patrons were reluctant to cross. Apparently the relationship with Deborah cooled, and although they remained close friends, Singer moved out of Rickety Bridge in 1997 leaving the robins on the gate and the wine label as reminders of his occupation.

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Heesom at Rickety Bridge winery.

During Jeremy Heesom's time, some of the farm outbuildings were converted into packing sheds for the varieties of fruit being produced. This included five varieties of plum, four varieties of peaches and three of pears. All this meant that, during the harvest, the packers were busy in the sheds sixteen hours a day packing the fruit which was all sold on the overseas market.

On the slopes of the Dassenberg, behind the buildings, Jeremy planted fir trees, mentioning that the carpet of pine needles prevented erosion, which, although he had never been back to the farm, Jeremy assured me had become a problem again when the trees were cut down by a later owner, Robin Singer. 

Jeremy’s parents lived on and worked Zorgvleit and the family shared a lorry between the the two farms. This meant work could not be done simultaneously at both farms, with whatever damage to the quality of the harvested grapes is not known, but Jeremy was rather proud of the economy of the idea.

On his mother’s death, Jeremy inherited Zorgvleit and moved there, selling Sanddrift to the McNaughts.

The picture shows the restaurant created during Spence's time.

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What became Rickety Bridge was sold and resold until in 1967, it was bought by the Heesom family. I interviewed the son, Jeremy who told me that for some years the farm had been neglected and the house and its outbuildings were dilapidated.

Having graduated from an English university, Jeremy applied all he had learned to making Sanddrift/Rickety Bridge a productive farm. He grew fruit, pears, apples, plums, peaches, he planted fir trees, he planted a selection of rare varieties of grapes, and he kept pigs and remembers the time with pleasure.

The grapes, which he bought from Stellenbosch Farmers Winery co-operative, included some 4000 Cabernet seedlings but he also introduced Pinotage, Stein, Hermitage and Clairette Blanche, this last being used as a bulking agent in champagne. He later added some Gewurztraminer.

Knowing nothing of wine making, Jeremy sent his grapes to Stellenbosch Farmer’s Winery, from whom he received a good price.

As mentioned, the buildings were in disrepair and the Heesoms spent large sums of money on renovation, re-thatching the manor house and some of the outbuildings.

To accommodate the pigs, the outbuildings had to be modified, several walls being knocked down to meet the needs of the expanded farm. The pigs provided manure for the farm and ate what discards of fruit and other edible rubbish became available. 

The picture shows the lounge of the house as it was after it's final renovation by Duncan Spence in around 2003.

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The Dirkse van Schalkwyk’s bought the farm in 1868, the year it was confirmed that diamonds occurred in South Africa with the finding of the Star of South Africa. Mr le Roux of the Paarl museum commented that the Dirkse van Schalkwyks were something of an aristocratic van Schalkwyk, the addition of the Dirkse being equivalent to an English double barrel.

Nothing was found about what kind of man the first van Schalkwyk was, or how he struggled to replant after Phyloxera was discovered but, if not wealthy, he did become a man of substance, justifying a note in the local paper when he died explaining that he died in Worcester where he had gone to visit. During the visit he took ill and died on the Monday 27^th September 1913.

His son Theunis Gabriel Dirkse van Schalkwyk took over ownership in 1914 and left a substantial estate, recorded in detail in the Archives the most notable items being that on maps of the period  his farm/s  are mentioned as ‘Sanddrift now Paulinas Dal.’ That he left furniture valued at £50 and a motor car valued at £85 left specially to his daughter-in-law Anna Sussana Gertreuda van Schalkwyk. Fixed deposits totalling £1300 As well as a list of shares

Paarl African Trust                                                             £ 30

50 Wine Volkspers Bpk                                                                     £   8 – 19 – 2

20 Shares Franschhoek Coop Vrugteuitvoerders Maatsckappy        £    2 – 18 – 0 Fruit transporters

11 Shares SA Dried Fruit Co.                                                            £    5 – 10 – 0

607 Shares KWV                                                                               £106 – 14 – 6

         Interest                                                                                      £  15 –   3 – 6

(This legacy indicating that the farm had been a success from a financial point of view.)

The picture is of the tea room at Franscchhoek

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The tragic tale of Paulina's Dal/Rickety Bridge continued into 1867 when the then owner, Du Toit, lost the farm. In his insolvency papers he complained he had to pay interest on the whole of the purchase price annually as well as support a large family despite the value of his wine crops falling due to the disease in the vines. Du Toit owed £1125, the amount he had paid for the property fourteen years earlier but,which was now worth only £580.

He had two main debts, one for £700, the outstanding balance of the loan from Paulina's father, Paul, which he used to buy the farms. Had the loan still been in Paul's name, things might have been different, but,for some reason, the loan had been transferred to Paulina's grandson, who was probably in similar financial difficulties and dependent on the interest.

There may be more to it, of course. The second claim on poor du Toit was for the £425 outstanding on the bond he had given to Paulina's husband, Pepler, which had been transferred to an outsider.  As Pepler's will showed his estate consisted of  no more than ‘some furniture valued at £25’ and his death certificate noted that he had been ‘lately a shopkeeper’, it may be that Pepler's grandson felt du Toit's inability to pay his debts had forced grandfather Pepler into virtual poverty and was unsympathetic to du Toit's problems. I'm making this into a story and must stick to facts but the temptation to create motives and turn this into a family saga is great because ~~~ in 1868, Paulinas Dal was auctioned and bought by Willem Jacobus Dirkse van Schalkwyk, whose wife, Francina Hester de Villiers, was another descendent of the original de Villiers brothers, the great-grand-daughter of Paulina's uncle Jacob.

The image is of the tea garden at Franschhoek memorial.

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In the 1850's there was a resurgence in the local wine business caused by the devastation of the European vineyards by powdery mildew, which pushed Cape exports to 1 112 449 gallons, but it was short lived.

Despite the debt burden he faced, du Toit struggled on.

Powdery mildew was in the Cape by 1859 and unfortunately, although some of the upland farms escaped, the Franschhoek valley suffered.

Then, in 1860, Britain signed a trade agreement with France that reduced the tariff on imports from there and virtually killed the export trade of the Cape wine farms.

By 1861, the powdery mildew was at its worst in the winelands. While the application of sulphur proved an effective antidote, lurking in the background was Phylloxera. Discovered in America in 1854, the pest had crossed the Atlantic and had been recognised in hothouses in Hammersmith in 1960. By 1863 it was rife in France.

In 1866 a strange infection was noticed at the Cape and the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society suggested wine farmers should try growing linseed, cochineal and some new varieties of tobacco.

The 1867 recognition that the ‘blink klippies’ around Kimberley were diamonds saved South Africa’s economy and encouraged many farmers to sell up and try their luck at Kimberley, for du Toit, even that was too late.

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In the 1850’s the group of small farms that included Paulina's Dal suffered two major convulsions, first when it was sold to Daniel Jacobus Du Toit and later, when du Toit sold a portion of the property and created what became Rickety Bridge out of what land he retained. This Du Toit could trace his ancestry back through his mother Anna Margarita de Villiers to David, a brother of Paulina’s father and a grandson of Jacques de Villiers. 

Leading up to 1850 the wine industry had taken a knock and was heading for depression.

In 1840 the exports had been   465 773 gallons

In 1850 they were reduced to  246 132 gallons

By 1853 this was down to       182 322 gallons

In that year a consignment to England lost its owners £3000 and on a similar consignment to Madagascar, £4000.

However, at that point, the local industry received a boost when the powdery mildew, Oidium Tucheri, devastated the vineyards of Europe, lifting the price of a leaguer of Cape wine, roughly 120 gallons, from 67 to 82 Rix dollars.

It may be that this created one of those sudden surges in an economic sector for which South Africa is famous and convinced people, like D. J. du Toit, that the wine industry was ripe for investment.

Whatever the reason, du Toit bought the farms, including Paulina's Dal for £1125 in 1853, taking a mortgage bond from Albertus Jacob de Villiers for £500,

Du Toit also took a mortgage on the properties from Paulina’s father, Paul, for £1000, presumably to finance a replanting and expansion. It meant Du Toit's mortgage on  the property now stood at £1500 when its market value, set by his own purchase, was only £1125, and the scene was set for his insolvency.

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