The history of Simon’s Town has always been closely linked with commercial and naval shipping. Indeed it was initially, in 1742, that the Dutch East India Company’s Council of Seventeen, who headed the largest company in the world at that time, issued an instruction that would initiate the development of this area. Until then […]

  9 Inch RIFLED MUZZLE LOADING (RML) GUN MIDDLE NORTH BATTERY SIMON’S TOWN The gun was designed in 1865 as a broadside gun for ironclad ships and harbour seafront defence. A total of 190 were made. The gun was last fired in 1903. This gun was first mounted in Halifax Nova Scotia until 1878, then […]

  Glencairn and the Else (also referred to as Els) river valley are located on the coast of False Bay, between Fish Hoek and Simon’s Town. In 1743 the Dutch East India Company established an official station and anchorage at Simonstown. An early map, drawn in 1870, shows the course of the river which was […]

The village of Muizenberg was established by the Dutch in 1743 as a military post on the road between Cape Town and Simon’s Town. It was named after Wynand Willem Muijs, sergeant in charge of the post in 1844, and later commander of the Cape garrison. The railway line from Wynberg reached Muizenberg on 15 […]

Click on the photograph to view the Slideshow This prestigious little stretch of 1.2 kilometres along the coastline of False Bay, where the mountains meet the sea, is known as St. James. Small though it may be, the church, the school, the hotels, the old aquarium, the beach, the homes and the people all contribute […]

Please click on the photographs above to view each slideshow   There are few easy ways of earning a living and fishing is certainly not one of them. Nature in the raw is seldom mild and the fisherman confronts nature in all its moods. Their work is hard, dangerous and success dependent on many unpredictable […]

 SHORT HISTORY OF THE CLOVELLY COUNTRY CLUB Author, date of publication, and publisher not given. FOREWORD By R D Ackerman, President. The idea of a club history has been in the minds of many connected with Clovelly for some time. Those who recall the Club in its early days when it was virtually a […]

  Although the first plots in Fish Hoek were only sold in 1918 there have been people in the Fish Hoek Valley for many thousands of years, but it was only in the 1920’s that the early history of the valley was uncovered. The names of Victor and Bertie Peers are remembered in Fish Hoek, […]

Take time to go through these slideshows (waiting just a minute for each one to load) … FISH HOEK VALLEY

  Imagine living in the southern suburbs of Cape Town in the 1870s, where would you go for a day out and how would you get there? There were no cars and horses were expensive to keep unless you needed them for your business. Perhaps you knew someone with a horse and cart so, as […]