Duncan Spence at Rickety Bridge

Duncan Spence took over the farm at auction in 2000 and made a number of changes aimed at attracting the tourist as well as promoting the sale of wine.

The house was refurnished into comfortable overnight accommodation.

The old sunken concrete tank in front of the old cellar was turned into a fishpond.

The old cellar area was completely remodelled into a conference centre and a consecrated chapel in which marriages can take place turned this area into a wedding venue which attracted a stream of local and overseas brides.

The tasting area was also extended and in fine weather tasting is enjoyed on the verandah looking out across the valley to the mountains.

What to show? The fish tank, the interior and the view?

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Behind Rickety Bridge

Outside, Len pointed to the back retaining wall, which he built mainly with rocks he had taken from the ground he excavated behind the kitchen and house. He also pointed to the water storage dams, which were added for better water pressure in the house and mentioned that he thought the work involved in the wall and the dams with their pumps and equipment were the last straw for Robin Singer.

The rising slope behind the building is a great background, but it is easy to see why retaining walls would be necessary if any extension was being planned. It is also easy to understand how an escalation in mortgage rates adding to the cost of all the work the singers did to Rickety Bridge would strain a budget but the singers put more than money into the project and I think it showed.

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Rickety Bridge kitchen

In the kitchen, Len Raymond pointed to to the nook in the corner beside the old fireplace, saying it would originally have been contained the baking oven, heated by a flue from the fire, with a door through which the bread and other baking would be loaded. The nook would have had a wide shelf above the oven in which a slave, or servant, would have slept. ‘Whichever one the boss was sleeping most with at the time’, according to Len.
It's not so much the structure of the old houses that interests me but what it tell us of how the people lived and worked. Anyway, here is a picture of the old kitchen, minus the old fireplace and after several renovations.

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Horse transport

In going round the Rickety Bridge house at the time the Singers were renovating, the builder Len Raymond made several comments. In the lounge, pointing to where new, better dressed, beams had been used when the wings were extended he mentioned that the new beams were probably brought by ox-wagon from Knysna by the Dirkse van Schalkwyks. He pointed out that the same changeover could be seen in the accommodation on the other side of the dining room.

In the kitchen, Len pointed to the stub of a beam sticking out of the side wall and, sighting along the beam over the fireplace, commented that the stump was ‘near enough’ to have been the end of the original beam before it was cut during some renovation.

What I enjoyed was the thought of someone dragging timber from Knysna on the east coast over the mountain passes to Franschoek. In those days men were really men and horses were heavy and strong, not the thoroughbreds that look so good in the paddock and come last when you have a bet on them.

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Bernard Vrey interior at Rickety Bridge

Still looking at the interior of the old house at Rickety Bridge, the yellow wood panels in the side doors leading to the lounge and the downstairs accommodation are of a design used by Bernard Vrey and, according to Len, could date from before Vrey’s death in 1794 which would date the building much earlier than 1830. The fluting in the cupboard belongs to a period between 1790 and 1820 which confirmed, in Len’s mind, the earlier date of the building. There are of course several explanations for the doors and cupboard; they could simply have been copied; they could have been bought by the Peplers, or Paulina’s father, Paul de Villiers, both of whom were wealthy by the standards of the time; they could have been bought and installed by the Dirkse van Schalkwyk; they could have come from a much older building on the site which escaped the digging around of the University of Cape Town specialists by being directly under the present house.

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History Inside Rickety Bridge

Inside the house at Rickety Bridge, Len Raymond commented that the house had been built T shaped rather than a straight farmhouse. Had it been straight, the roof beams would have been set at right angles to the front wall and, since the beams in the dining area show no sign of having been moved, they must have run across the room when it was built.

In the middle of the dining room Len pointed out where a wall had been removed. The wall would have divided the area into two rooms, a voorkamer, front room, and an agterkamer, back room, with the present wall separating the agterkamer from the kombuis or kitchen.

It would have been in this middle wall that the wall cupboard would have originally been situated.

The pictures show the original wall cabinet and the elegant dining room of the house.

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Rebuilding Cape Dutch

For the renovation of the manor house Robin Singer  used Len Raymond. Len used plans drawn by Rowan Pape the architect. When Pape was contacted he said that his file on Rickety Bridge had been lost in an office move but Len brought a set of the plans to the meeting. Len’s wife had been about to destroy the plans after an office clean up when the phone call to arrange a meeting came through; one of the many ESP incidents that have graced the history of the property.

Len Raymond was chose because he had researched the old Cape houses extensively in tracing the history of the work of one of the old carpenters Bernard Vrey and his first comment was that the manor house had, at some stage, been extended on both sides by enough to accommodate an extra window.

The gable was reduced by Len to something like its original proportions, reflecting the Constantia design rather than the Flemish influence of the previous gable. This was done to allow the valley in the thatched roof to drain properly and not be blocked by the gable.

The front door that was then in place was not the original as the centre panel would have been a single plank rather than the planks joined by the butterfly insert in place now.

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Rickety Bridge Robins and Interest rates

My last notes from Celia Singer at Rickety Bridge confirmed it was the Singers who started the label with the Robins on it. Her last word was still reminiscent of 'Carry On', however. Commenting on the old ‘rickety bridge’ before it was replaced by the new concrete bridge by Robin Singer, Celia said it was a set of boards sitting on top of some pieces of railway track. When a car came on to the bridge at one end, the planks lifted like a see-saw and only came down with a clap when the car reached the middle of the plank. It's different now, more acceptable but not the same adventure.

Unfortunately, I want to warn all those diving in to get a mortgage in these days of incredibly low interest rate - in 1999, interest rates climbed to what seems an unbelievable 25% and the financial burden became unacceptable and the Tonkins left Rickety Bridge.

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Rickety Bridge Snakes and See-saw

The interest Celia had taken in the Rickety Bridge house became clear as she talked of what the house and its bridge had been like in the past. She mentioned that when the McNaughts took over, the farm had been really dilapidated and it was they who set about planting vines.

The house was revamped by Robin Singer who had used a builder, Len Raymond from Paarl, who specialised in Old Cape houses. The house had originally been a T shaped Cape Dutch house with a central room which ran through the house to the back, with a room on either side. In the old days, the people would have slept on straw mattresses in the side rooms.

The house would have been built with half doors, so that the top half could be left open to allow a breeze to circulate in the hot months, with the bottom closed to keep out the animals and snakes.

Commenting on the old ‘rickety bridge’ before it was replaced by the new concrete bridge by Robin Singer, Celia said it was a set of boards sitting on top of some pieces of railway track. When a car came on to the bridge at one end, the planks lifted like a see-saw and only came down with a clap when the car reached the middle of the plank.

Since my association with Rickety Bridge came through sailing I hope you won't mind the link or the picture of Dee Cafari.

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Winter fun at Rickety Bridge

Celia told me that, while the Tonkins were there, the Winter and its rain brought little relief. They found a small ancient tractor on the premises. When this overturned, nearly trapping the driver, they bought a new model. Using this to plough the South East vineyard after heavy rain, the driver got stuck. No doubt being unwilling to let it be known that he had got the new tractor into difficulties, the driver kept trying to free the tractor until the big wheels were well bogged down above the axles. At that stage he called the Tonkins.

The Tonkins called their neighbour for help and the neighbour sent a tractor, which, after much revving and smoking, joined the Tonkin’s machine in the mire.

A third tractor was sent for and, watched in anxious disbelief by those present, it too sank into the mud.

The neighbour then brought an enormous unit which, to everyone’s relief, pulled first one and then a second and finally the Tonkin’s tractor out of the mud.

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