A HOLIDAY COTTAGE AND A HOLIDAY VILLA From the 1880s onwards, families began to build or book accommodation in Hermanus for their annual holidays. This post tells the story of two of these. The cottage known as The Anchorage was initially rented by the Gearing family from Cape Town as a holiday home each year from the late 1890s, until they bought it in 1912 when Mr Charles Sydney retired to Hermanus. Its present location is 71-73 Marine Drive. Research by Michael Clark of the Hermanus History Society shows that the dwelling was owned first by Mr A C Henn, a member of the original Henn settler family. He almost certainly built the first house, which appears to have been substantially altered over time. The property was then sold to Mr P G Kuhn and then to Mr G. Gie. It later became Gearing’s permanent residence from which he filled the position of Mayor of Hermanus from 1915-1919. Sydney Gearing was a qualified engineer and astute businessman who lived with his family in Rondebosch in Cape Town. In some books, he is referred to as the “Mayor” of Rondebosch which is possible since it was a separate local authority at that time. He invented a very well-known wind pump for farm boreholes which can still be seen working in deep rural areas in South Africa, with his name showed very prominently on the ‘tail’ that catches the wind and keeps the fan blades in the optimum position. A member of the family has described the two-day journey the family undertook to reach the house during the South African War when they had to get a permit from the military authorities to travel out of Cape Town. The full account can be found in Arderne Tredgold’s book, “Village of the Sea”. The house looks towards the headland known as Gearing’s Point. The formal naming of the bluff, which provides some shelter from the open sea on the west side of the Old Harbour, came long after it appears, unnamed, in Hermanus history. Traditionally, the wives and families of fishermen would gather at the ‘point’ to watch out for the returning boats. Usually, this resulted in an early sight of laden boats on a relatively calm sea, and the relieved watchers then moved to the Visbaai itself to assist with cleaning the catch once it was landed. But, not infrequently, wives and children gathered anxiously as bad weather or a severe storm was approaching. Then fears ran high, and shouts and cries were heard if one or other of the boats seemed to be damaged or could not be seen at all. There is no record of the number of fishermen’s lives lost in Hermanus, but it occurred often enough to be in the townspeople’s minds every time the boats went out. As the fishing activity declined during the 20th century, the image of anxious women and children watching from the very edge of Gearing’s Point has faded, and it requires a real act of imagination to see them now, waiting for the safe return of husband and father. Rayfraden The holiday ‘villa’ holiday home is located at 232 Main Road in Eastcliff, about 300 meters to the east of the present Eastcliff Centre. It is on the ocean side of Main Road with a high hedge along what is now a very busy part of the road to Voelklip. Main Road makes a sharp bend at this point, and drivers need to take care to negotiate “Swingler’s Corner” as the curve was known in earlier days. The builders and first owners of the house were the Swingler family who was prominent in Hermanus and Onrus from the 1930s to the early 2000s. The Swingler’s interest in Hermanus started in the early 1930s when George Swingler began investing in property in the town. He was the City Electrical Engineer of Cape Town for more than 25 years and later General Manager of the Electricity Supply Commission (Escom), the predecessor to Eskom. He married Janie Delbridge whose family were prominent in the residential construction industry. The holiday home they built was designed by George’s father-in-law’s brother, an architect named William John Delbridge. The construction of the house was personally supervised by George’s father-in-law, William Delbridge. The Swingler family had a tradition of naming their residences and while living in Cape Town had combined syllables from their children’s names to create the name of “Radnor” for their home. They followed a similar process in Hermanus. George and Janie named the house “Rayfraden”, referring to their three sons Raymond, Frank and Denys. Unfortunately, they did not have a long tenure in the house. In 1940, George was seconded into the armed forces by the South African government and transferred to New York where he ‘filled a vital role in the procurement of war supplies’ for the country. He returned to South Africa in 1943, but was already suffering from hypertension and died in 1946. Rayfraden was then sold to the Hersov family for £17 000. It is still owned by the Hersovs. The Swingler name continued in the Hermanus area for many years after the sale of the house. Frank Swingler settled permanently in Onrus in 1951 where he ran a general dealer’s shop and worked as a building contractor. He was universally known as ‘Tubby’, and in 1966 he joined the staff of the Hermanus Municipality as a property valuer. Later in life, he and his wife were involved in the development of the Lakeview Chalets on the eastern side of Voelklip. He died in 2006. The house has a second name, given variously in different documents as ‘Stonehenge’ and ‘Stonehage’. I cannot confirm this. The Municipality’s Conservation Report of 2009 describes the property as follows: ‘Finest surviving example of a grand Hermanus seaside villa and garden setting in the town. An example of architectural excellence, constructed by a recognized master.’ (989 words)