The Liesbeeck River has supported human settlement for hundreds of years as it flows from its source on TableMountainto the shores of Table Bay. It sustained nomadic herders in the earliest days and later immigrants built their homesteads along its banks, living there with their slaves and their descendants.

Dr Helen Robinson’s talk explores the lives of some of the people within these households. She asks the question – to what extent did this multi-cultural population achieve a degree of self-sufficiency which enabled them to co-exist in the villages which were later established along the banks of the River?

This is a story of change from a simple agrarian community to a vital modern lifestyle, which was fuelled by the technological advances of the 19th century and came to fruition in the next 100 years. Her talk and her book attempt to bring together these issues and to present a coherent account of the process which brought about change in this socially sensitive area.
This story concludes with the incorporation of the villages into greaterCape Town in 1913, but suggests that this is an ongoing process with many more implications for the 20th and 21st centuries.

Above all, it is the story of a struggle for recognition by men, women and children against a background of hope and despair, of affluence and poverty, of ignorance and understanding. It is a significant segment ofCapehistory and an acknowledgement of all the people who made it.

Dr Helen Robinson received her MA in 1985 for a study on forced removals in Greyton in the Overburg.
Her PhD thesis in the History Department in 1998 was Beyond the City Limits – People and Property at Wynberg.
She published Wynberg – a Special Place in 2001 which looks at the impact of change and modernization on the area during the twentieth century, and in 2005, a commemorative book to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the annual season of Shakespeare at the Maynardville Open Air Theatre.

Her latest book will be on sale at the very exclusive price of R150: The Villages of the Liesbeeck – from the sea to the source.

WHY A NEW CONSTITION?

The South African constitution has undergone no fewer than 18 Amendments in its relatively short life-span while the VASSA constitution has survived 25 years without any change.
The context of built heritage conservation has completely changed within this time with the advent of new legislation, heritage practices and authorities, to say nothing of the technological revolution.
Twenty-five years ago a ‘laptop’ might have had a completely different connotation!

The amended Vassa constitution positions the society to be proactive as well as responsive to architectural conservation dynamics. It provides for greater transparency and accountability as a public benefit organisation; and the use of information technology as a tool. It streamlines management and operational practices and broadens the scope of activities in support of our original objectives.

WHY ELSE?

It also allows us to alter when we have our AGM, from March to November, and ratify the subscription rates.
This means we can budget better and announce the rates at the beginning of each year, which is a more practical way forward.

It also means that there will be no increase in subscription rates this year – and that we will be having another AGM in Nov 2012 when we’ll announce the rates for 2013.

WHAT THIS MEANS ?

Bring along your subs payment to the Feb talk!
2012 Rates are unchanged from 2011:

R165 for singles, R275 for family & R250 for SACAP

& R20 for a replacement badge.

What is required is that when you pay, you also complete a Membership Form – either a hard copy available at the door, or online. This is non negotiable.

HOW THINGS WORK 

This year members are receiving a separate invoice with payment details included- see attached.

Please Note that you have 2 months only in which to pay.

As proof of current payment, a coloured slip will be mailed to you in the March newsletter (which will be sent to all members, even those who usually receive the newsletter by email). This slip must be inserted into your badge and worn at all times.

NEXT MONTH – THE AGM & ANNUAL AFTER PARTY

Diarise Tuesday 20 March
Joy Saxon is valiantly organising the party spread. Should you wish to help in any way please call her 021 674 4717.

Dr Helen Robinson leads a walk through historical places along the Liesbeeck which begins at Josephine Mill. She’ll attempt to illustrate what remains of the early days in the former villages of Newlands and Rondebosch and give some idea of the farms which were established along the River and of their owners over time.

The walk commences at Josephine Mill, returning to the Mill. Bring a picnic.

DATE: Saturday 25 February 2012
TIME:  10h00

Pieter Jolly is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology at UCT, whose special area of research is San history and rock art, specifically the history of interaction between the south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities.

He became interested in cave dwellings and other cave structures while staying at Masitise in southern Lesotho in the early 1990s while researching the history of the last San people living in present-day Lesotho.

The house he stayed in at Masitise was close to a well-known cave house occupied in the 19th century by the French missionary, Reverend D.F. Ellenberger, and was the first of many made over the next 20 years to cave houses and other cave structures in the south-eastern areas of southern Africa – specifically Lesotho, the Free State and the North-eastern Cape.

His informal study culminated last year in a self-published book :”Rock Shelter: some cave and cliff structures in Lesotho and South Africa”, which is dedicated to James Walton, who pioneered the study of cave dwellings in South Africa and Lesotho.
It will be on sale at R140 on the night.

SOME CAVE AND CLIFF STRUCTURES IN LESOTHO AND SOUTH AFRICA
The illustrated talk focuses on a little-known aspect of the architectural heritage of Lesotho and south-eastern South Africa – structures built in caves and in the shelter of cliffs, built and occupied by a wide range of people – including traditional healers, European priests and European, Nguni and Sotho farmers.

In some cases they were simply considered convenient places of shelter. It was quite common, for wandering Sotho groups to build their mud or stone thatched dwellings within a cave or in the lee of a cliff. European farmers, too, sometimes lived in caves before building themselves more traditional dwellings.
Often features of the cave or cliff would be incorporated into the design of these cave and cliff dwellings.

In other cases, caves were sought out by “holy people” who considered them inherently sacred spaces – portals between the surface of the earth, inhabited by human beings, and the hidden world inside the earth, inhabited by spirit beings.

In more recent times, some cave structures have been erected to provide shelter for hikers and others fleeing the pressures of city life, looking for a return to an earlier time when the shelter from the elements took a simpler and more environmentally-friendly form.

ABOUT CHANGES TO THE CONSTITUTION 

Why we are starting early is that Thys Hattingh will be presenting to you proposed changes to our constitution –which have been intended since he commenced his chairmanship in March this year.

What’s required at this Special General Meeting is your mandate to proceed.
This is why we are attaching a copy of our exisiting constitution (see VASSA -Constitution) as well as the proposed new constitution in a draft form, so that you are fully in the picture, and can make an informed decision (download VASSA – New Constitution: Draft)

Should you not be able to be present on the night, please participate in this important issue nonetheless by letting us know your mandate via completing the attached proxy (download VASSA – Proxy Form).

We’ll begin with the Constitution amendments at 7pm, and Pieter’s talk will follow.
And in order to celebrate James Walton’s birthday, there will be sherry on the house (a slight deviation from his favoured tipple of whisky) but in the spirit of things!

What remains of the rural character that the market gardens that once surrounded the fledgling city gave the Upper Table Valley is condensed into a series of parks tucked into the urban fabric.

We‘ll be exploring a segment of these, following the water’s routes – from Deer Park on the urban edge and then past the swathe of green spaces (including the old water catchment area of the town) that culminates in the little park where the Oranjezicht slave bell and portion of one of its outbuildings remain.
En route to our final destination (De Waal Park and the early reservoirs across the road from it), we’ll pass the Hurling Pump.

Those who wish to walk the whole route can, (remember to make a plan for leaving a car at De Waal Park to get back to the cars parked at the start!) while the less exercise-enthused can drive the route, stopping at each of our sites.

After our adventures, we shall repair to De Waal Park for our traditionally super-festive end-of-Vernac-year picnic.
Pack your hampers accordingly.

Meet at 10h00 at the Homeleigh Avenue end of Deer Park, Oranjezicht.
Park in Homeleigh Avenue and surrounding roads – no formal car park area.
To get there: Either turn right into Gorge Road, off Upper Buitenkant, then park near the top of Gorge, where it meets Homeleigh or turn left into Sidmouth off Upper Orange and follow the road round to where it becomes Homeleigh Avenue.

The terms “public buildings” and “vernacular architecture” would, at first sight, seem to be contradictory.
With the latter, one tends to think of farm complexes, watermills, threshing floors and dovecots.

In our lecture programme aimed at discussing various aspects of our vernacular heritage, our former chairman and founder member Hans Fransen will try to detect whether vernacular elements can also be found in the churches and drostdy buildings erected at the Cape over two centuries.

His talk will be richly illustrated with examples, both still extant and since demolished.
Whether gaols can rightly be called “public buildings” he is still busy figuring out.

In terms of honouring his pioneering spirit, and in recognition of Hans’ life-long contributions in the cultural sphere, the directors of the FAK [Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurverenigings] will be conferring the Award for Extraordinary Cultural Services, at their annual FAK Prestige Evening in Centurion at then end of this month.
Hans has also been knighted by the Netherlands for his pioneering work and dedication to architecture: the fieldwork for his seminal book The Old Buildings of the Cape covers over 5 000 buildings, includes 700 photographs and required travelling 25 000 km by car and 5 000 km by bicycle.

Old Nectar, Jonkershoek
Time: 10h00
Cost: R50

It is a great privilege to visit Old Nectar at this time of the year when the roses will still be in bloom and Una van der Spuy, the owner, will show us around her famous garden and also inside her home which was built in 1814 on the farm Nectar, dating back to the late 1600’s.

General and Mrs van der Spuy bought the farm in 1942 and the garden is acclaimed as one of the most beautiful in South Africa. It is a national monument.

In 2009 ‘’Old Nectar, A Garden for All Seasons’’ was published and this superb book is illustrated with over 200 of her magnificent photographs.

Since 25 people can be accommodated at the cost of R50 each, additional tours are being arranged on either Wednesday 26 or Sunday 30 October – starting at 10h00.
Please phone Joy Saxon on 021 674 4717 to book, arrange pre-payment and date.

Andre van Graan will lead us on 22 October and later take us to Lanzerac, which is also one of the oldest farms in the Jonkershoek Valley. Bring along a picnic and a camera.

Directions:
Take your favourite route to Stellenbosch and turn either left or right depending on whether you come on the N1 or N2 – into Merriman.
Follow Merriman until it runs into Martinson and then into Jonkershoek ( +-1/2 km after Morkel, on right). Just after this you pass a turning to Lanzerac on your right.
Continue along Jonkershoek, past Neil Ellis wine estate (on left), and then after a bend in the road, you will see the turn off to Old Nectar, also on your left, and about 3.5 km from Lanzerac.
There is very limited parking so it is essential to double up in cars. Please do heed this request.

Intrepid VASSA member Nigel Amschwand, professionally is an engineer by day, but in his spare time he has traversed many less travelled routes and vertiginous mountain passes with a fearless spirit and an investigative eye.

His talk will be about the old routes to the Roggeveld and the areas beyond, opened up in the 18th century. A few of the alternative ways that were used to get to Karoopoort (a tea stop on the weekend excursion ) will be described.
From there on, the route to the Roggeveld escarpment will be shown using modern maps and overlays of early farm diagrams.
The talk will include some early sketches by William Burchell and narratives from other early travellers.
Some historical facts and stories about some of the places will be given.

THE SEPTEMBER OUTING
Will be a weekend excursion to Sutherland (on 7- 10 OCTOBER)

IN MEMORIUM – MICKY MUNRO

A founder member who served on the committee, Micky contributed largely with her constant, lively interest in the world.
A graduate of Michaelis School of Fine Art, we knew her as a talented artist. She designed and supervised the building of a house in the garden of her old 19th century house in Rouwkoop village to meet the needs of her husband Hugh, sadly confined to a wheelchair.

As Mary Floyd commented in 2005 in a VASSA Journal edition that honoured its Octogenarian Vernackers:
”We remember this gallant woman as Cape Town’s top photographic model. Glamorous long legs, sophisticated and beautiful on the page of every Saturday’s Cape Times magazine – and other publications. She probably had a dry sense of humour even then”.

THE GLOBAL CAPE - Breaking the Boundaries of the Early Cape Colony by Nigel Worden - an inaugural lecture.

Nigel Worden first encountered African history as an undergraduate at Cambridge and came to South Africa in 1979 to spend six months in the Cape archives researching for his doctorate. Apart from a brief period teaching at the University of Edinburgh, he has been here ever since.

His earliest research focussed on slavery in the Dutch Cape Colony and this led to a growing interest in Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian history. In the 1990s he co-authored a pioneering two volume social history of Cape Town and more recently he has explored the ways in which sailors, artisans and slaves from across the world created new lives for themselves in the early colonial settlement. His current project explores concepts of honour and shame in the early modern Indian Ocean world.

His previous training as an actor might explain why he is a passionate lecturer and teacher and he was one of the earliest winners of a UCT Distinguished Teacher award. He also has degrees in linguistics and in art history which, coupled with his obsession with travel and with learning languages, means his students have encountered topics ranging from Argentinean tango and Flemish paintings to Australian folk ballads and Malaysian heritage sites.

He has also published a widely-used general history of South Africa, has appeared in several recent television documentaries and is a member of the triumvirate that wrote the influential In Search of History senior school textbook series.
He became a full professor in 1997, was recently a Deputy Dean of the Humanities Faculty and is currently head of the Historical Studies Department. This is his inauguration into the King George V Chair of History to which he was appointed in 2009.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011 at 17h30
Lecture Theatre 1, Kramer Law Building
Middle Campus, University of Cape Town
Admission: Free: RSVP by 14 September 2011 for catering purposes to: Michelle Moses Tel: 021 650 4870 * Fax: 021 650 5628 * Email: michelle.moses@uct.ac.za

STILL OUTSTANDING 2011 SUBSCRIPTIONS
It has been suggested to us that what would make your life much easier would be to be receive an invoice each year, which we will think is a very good idea, and will be sending out from 2012 onwards.

A heritage survey is designed to identify and grade all heritage resources and heritage areas within a geographical area (or the component elements, buildings, sites and places with a heritage theme), which is usually an urban or rural environment or, in some cases, an entire municipal area.

Graham Jacobs is an architect, accredited professional heritage consultant and musician, with an MA from York. He has worked at the City in urban conservation, and with teams surveying in the Drakenstein, Swartland and Overstrand districts.
This has given him considerable experience in identifying, analysing and assessing the importance of a wide range of structures.
However, the task is not easy, and he will give examples of places over which hot debates took place.

OUTSTANDING MEMBERSHIP FEES

To date 102 members have not yet paid!
W e have received two unmarked deposits and one marked ‘’Jpk & Hms’’ … do beam us up Scottie
Dear members, your exhausted treasurer and I are wondering how many reminders it takes?
This is your 6th notification.
R165/ single, R275/ family, SACAP/ R250.
Standard Bank, Rondebosch. Branch 025009
Account: 075624257 / or pay online

This trip follows on from Graham Jacobs’s talk.

We will be travelling by bus to Hermanus where chairperson of the Overstrand Heritage and Aesthetics Committee, Estelle Spaarwater, and architect and Vernacs member, Noon Lloyd, will take us on a walking tour around an older part of the town.

There will be a brief stop at the Kramers’ house in Onrus where we will have a cup of tea and an introductory talk by Estelle. Thereafter we will travel up the Rotary Way which overlooks the town for an overview of Hermanus.
Then we will travel down into the town to explore the area around the Old Harbour and to visit the De Wet Photographic Museum with its wonderful collection of early photographs of Hermanus.

Estelle and Noon will lead us to the ‘binnedorp’ so that we can look at a block of original buildings, now all adapted for modern use, after which we will walk back to Marine Drive to discuss some of the buildings in this area.

Lunch will be a picnic on the lawns at the Old Harbour. Hopefully the whales will oblige with a visit. If it rains, arrangements have been made for us to move indoors.

After lunch the bus will take us out towards Voelklip where we will look at De Mond (the original house on this site was built by Cloete who also owned Groote Constantia), the Homestead (second holiday home after De Mond built by the McFarlanes and subsequently donated to be used as a nurse’s holiday home), and finally Willhelmstad, among the first houses at Voelklip, now the centre of a debate about its future.

Before we leave Hermanus there will be a comfort stop at Noon’s offices, which are in an original fisherman’s cottage, that she has sensitively adapted to house her architectural practice.

TIME: The bus will depart from the entrance to Boundary Terraces at the Atheneum complex at 8 am SHARP. Joy has arranged parking in the grounds of the Atheneum for the day.
NOTE: Parking is only available to us in front of the steps or in the lower area on the right towards the railway line. BRING: Picnic lunch, camp chairs or blankets to sit on. We have to walk a short distance to the picnic spot, so travel light. Bring warm clothes and rain wear (even if the weather is sunny in Cape Town). We might have to walk under umbrellas as the weather is very unpredictable at this time of year.
COST: R150 per person – includes transport, tea, museum entrance and notes. Please bring money to contribute towards the driver’s tip at the end of the day. This outing can accommodate 30 paid-up members. Contact Joy Saxon as soon as possible if you wish to go on this outing: 021 674 4717 or 073 024 2747

HOW TO PAY Cash: in envelope with your name on it – to be given to Joy Saxon on or before 16 August. Bank Transfer: Standard Bank, Rondebosch Branch number 025009; Account number: 075624257 Reference: Hermanus and your NAME – (and let Joy know you have paid) Cheque: Made out to VASSA – AND write “HERMANUS” on the back and give it to Joy on or before 16 August. With regard to payments, the preferable method of payment is by electronic transfer of funds.
This avoids the large fee which the bank charges for cash and cheque deposits. If you make an electronic transfer, please do not forget to give you name as a reference so that our treasurer knows whom to credit.

Our sincere thanks to Pat and John Kramer for arranging this fascinating outing to Hermanus.

NOTE: The Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa cannot be held responsible for loss, damage, accidents or injury to participants. Please check that your own insurance is in order.