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Klipriver Farm
Swellendam, Western Cape
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| Designed by owner Kliprivier. This is certainly the finest house in the Overberg, overlooking the Bruintjes River valley. Its association with the Steyns goes back a long way. In 1725 Jan Loots, one of the first five heemraden of the drostdy, held the land on loan. Alter his death in 1745 the lessee became Anthonie Lombard, a son of the Huguenot Pierre Lombard. From him it passed to his son of the same name, whose wife, Isabella Potgieter, was a sister-in-law of Hermanns Steyn d'Oude. In 1769 Lombard died and his widow married Ch. Gottlieb Lessing, having paid off accumulated debt on the farm, left it in 1771 and returned to Stellenhosch. In 1776 the farm was re-let to Johannes Sleyn. born in 1753 on the farm Voorhuis. This man was a younger brother of the 'President' of the Swellendam republic, and both were sons of Hermanns d'Oude. Johannes Steyn must hart spent most of his life on Kliprivier, very possibly in the old house of Jan Loots, until about 1812 he decided to build a new one. This new house is shown on HS Schutte's diagram, done in 1816, and there appears as a T-shaped house. In 1814 the farm - still a loan-farm - passed from Johannes Steyn to his son Hermanns Frederik; and then, owing to quarrels about the lease of part of the land (now known as Bellevue), to the assistant landdrost Frouenvelder; the latter was sent to 'Het Warme Bad', now Caledon, in the same capacity and wanted compensation for the buildings he had put up on Bellevue. The landdrost maintained that the terms of his lease compelled him to demolish all buildings on leaving the farm. This quarrel went on for years, and governor Cradock cut the Gordian knot by withdrawing Steyn's lease and putting the whole farm up for sale. The buyer at once re-sold the farm to Marthinus Steyn (a first cousin of Hermanns Steyn) who held it until his death in 1834, and his widow held it for a few years longer. It was almost certainly Marthinus Steyn who enlarged the house to its present size and gave it an H-plan by adding back wings. He also added the front-gable, probably about 1833. It consists of a split pediment crowned by a segmental cap, as is sometimes seen on cupboards of the time. The straight, pointed sides with their clefts can also be seen as a development born from a misunderstanding of winged volutes. Van der Meulen sees it as a version of the earlier Lutheran Church facade, which bad a 'draped' split pediment with a spire in the centre. But the end-gable of Dieprivier. Caledon, which is related to Kliprivier but earlier, does not call to mind the Lutheran Church at all. A suggested attribution to LM Thibault (who did work in Swellendam) is open to doubt, although of course his influence may have lingered. The gable has magnificent plaster decoration. Two, and probably three, periods of plasterwork can be seen, the higher being by far the best. The heavy pergola columns, a rare feature at the time, are of slightly later vintage for some of its overhead irons actually pierce the swags over the windows. The facade woodwork is all original, belonging to the original T-shaped house. There is a good drop-fanlight, but all the shutters are internal, and no signs exist of there ever having been external shutters. Inside, the screen has disappeared, though the beams, broad ceiling planks and the doors remain. The back wings are obviously later in date, and there is no back gable, only a dormer gable, with an opening in it to which a flight of steps leads up. Kliprivier is a very large house, with two rooms beside the voor- en agterkamer in each of the four wings. Later owners of the farm were the Reids, the Reitzes, and others. They all seem to have accepted the house as it was (except for the pergola), so that it is singularly unspoilt. Now in use as a guest-house, it is once again in good nick. [Fransen p463.]References:
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