Old Stables, Oatlands, Simonstown

This building was originally erected in the 18th century as a set of stables on the well-known Oaklands property. Shortly after the second British occupation of the Cape in 1806 it was converted to a guard house and was used as such for some time thereafter. It was declared a National Monument under old NMC legislation on 14 March 198‘Oaklands’ and ‘Welcome Farm’ were among the earliest homesteads in the valley, with Welcome Farm dating from c. 1815 (Fransen 2004). The Southern Right Hotel was established circa 1890 (Fransen 2004). Shortly after the hotel was built, a group of property speculators, the ‘Glencairn Syndicate’, identified the valley as a viable residential development venture and land was subdivided for single residential dwellings. Welcome Glen farm Deed of Grant completed in 1811, Welcome Cottage built between 1812 and 1815. it came into the possession of the de Villiers Family in 1871, remaining in the family for over a century. Over the years they produced vegetables, flowers, bark for tanning purposes and latterly, dairy produce. The land was sold to the Navy in 1970, except for 6 morgen on which the cottages stand. They were subsequently expropriated in 1974. Welcome Cottage no. 440 has been slightly altered by the addition of an enclosed stoep and a new roof, but otherwise remains un-altered with yellowwood beams, door and flooring, 5 traingular gables surmounted by pedimental caps. 

When Antoni Visser came to Simon's Bay in 1723, he followed the farmer's track over Silvermine, via Noordhoek to Poespaskraal homestead (opposite Masiphumelele). He then followed the track over Black Hill to the west of the present day "expressway", and then branched off to Welcome Farm, Oaklands and then on past Brooklands and Maylands to top of Red Hill. It is likely that these tracks followed earlier tracks of early khoikhoi herdsman who herded their cattle at times seeking additional grazing. The alternative route along the coast via Muizenberg passed through large stretches of sand at Fish Hoek and Glencairn, the hazardous 'trappies' at Clovelly, and quicksands at the Sivermine and Else River mouths.