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Waarburg

Hawksmoor House, Matjieskuil Farm, Wes-Kaap

Sometimes the perfect house meets the perfect owner: if so, then Hawksmoor House and its current owners, Mark Borrie and Simon Olding, have been an ideal match. The old manor house of Waarburg probably dates from the mid-eighteenth century and, after falling victim to neglect and unsympathetic updates, has been meticulously restored in the twenty-first century.

The history of this property, with its various names and numerous owners, now spans three centuries. In 1701, the Dutch governor of the Cape, Willem Adriaan van der Stel, granted sixty morgen of land at Joostenburg in the district of Stellenbosch to the dominee Hercules van Loon.

He was the predikant of the Reformed congregation in the “City of Oaks”, where he lived in a house on Dorpstraat just a few doors down from my former abode.

Occupied in town, van Loon also purchased farmland in the surrounding district, naming one Hercules Pilaar and another Waarburg, after the German castle of Lutheran lore.

The earliest surviving map of the property shows that there was a house here by 1704, but it is believed it was rarely used by the preacher who was occupied with his duties in town.

One day in that same year, Ds. van Loon rode from Hercules Pilaar towards Stellenbosch and, in a field outside the town, cut his own throat with a penknife. His flock were astonished and recorded that no-one knew why the preacher had killed himself.

Matilda Burden has argued that the existing house was built between 1758 and 1765 by the then-owner Jacobus Christiaan Faure. By 1826, Waarburg became known as Matjeskuil or Matjieskuil which it retained for most of its existence.

The longest-lasting owners were the Briers (later Louw) family who owned Matjieskuil either in whole or in part from 1881 until 2004 when it was sold to Mark Borrie. He and his partner Simon Olding launched a meticulous restoration at Matjieskuil with the aim of turning the farm into a guesthouse business.

Borrie wanted to give the enterprise a name that was easily pronounceable for non-Afrikaner guests while Olding preferred to keep an old Dutch name. They compromised by naming it Hawksmoor, already the name of the antiques business run by Olding, a former resident of Spitalfields.

The manor house was the first structure on the site to be renovated, followed by the old slave cottages, barns, and the dairy.

Hawksmoor House now includes sixteen guest rooms in addition to the working vineyard and farm and is a popular wedding venue.

The entire enterprise is now for sale as a going concern, with an erf of over 270 morgen (231 hectares / 570 acres).

Published at 3:10 pm on Wednesday 2 October 2024. Categories: Architecture South Africa Tags: , , .
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