Welcome to Belvidere Estate, a little suburb of Knysna with a rich history!
Your treasure is available 24/7 and management knows about the placement but not the location. Please use stealth as there are always people around here.
One of the most iconic buildings in this little estate of Belvidere is "The Bell", which you find on this property. It began its life as a humble farm building, which possibly evolved from an early shelter that traders would have used to stay overnight when coming to hunt. This historical building goes back to the founding days of Knysna in the middle of the 1800s and today is home to a tavern adjacent to the local hotel which used to be the old main farm manourhouse (read below).
There is no need to spend money here at all, but do take a look inside at the wine cellar visible through a section of the floor that was replaced with a glass panel, which is lined with stone and would have served to keep meat cold in the old days.
The photo attached shows a picture of the building before it was renovated to become what it is today as well as a picture of Thomas Henry Duthie, the owner of the land in the 1800s and who played an inportant role in Belvidere and local history.. read on!
*********On to some brief history of the locality for those who actually read cache listings...********
The history of Belvidere and Belvidere Estate:
You are standing on the grounds of the original Farm “Uitzigt” (meaning 'view' in Afrikaans), which comprised all of the Western Head from Brenton on Sea, Brenton on Lake to Belvidere. In 1830 George Rex, a retired lawyer and vice admiral of the Cape of Good Hope under British occupation, bought the land for £680 and named it “Belvidere” from the Italian words ‘bella’ (beautiful) and ‘vedere’ (to see).
The livelihoods of this piece of land was originally crops and cattle farming.
George Rex went on to become the biggest landowner in Knysna with 10,000 hectares altogether and a leading timber merchant. Thanks to his efforts the Port of Knysna was proclaimed in 1817. He is also known as the founder of Knysna.
In 1834 he sold the farm to his son-in-law, Lt. Thomas Henry Duthie (both names you will come across a lot in Knysna and Belvidere - some descendants still reside in town today) for £750, who had married George Rex’s 2nd daughter Caroline whom he had met in 1830 while traveling in the Cape on a hunting trip. Duthie first attempted salting fish to send to the Cape as well as Angora goat farming.
Thomas Henry Duthie became Supervisor of Crown Forests and Lands in 1838. Timber became his central to his life.
He went on to erect several buildings on the farm including Belvidere House, which today is "Belvidere Manor" Hotel. Manor House is an exquisite example of historic Cape Georgian architecture, built in 1848-9. The complex also hosts the "Bell Tavern" and its beer garden with view of the Knysna Estuary.
The layout for a new township on part of the land, which is today ‘Old Belvidere’ (adjacent to the Estate to the north of here) was undertaken by the Duthies with the Holy Trinity Church, consecrated in 1855, as the focal point as well as 157 plots for buildings and commonages and later a missionary school, in order to gather like-minded people and sociable contacts around their farm where there were not many neighbors around and visitors rare.
What is today Belvidere Estate, where you are now, remained in the ownership of the Duthie family as homestead and farmland.
When granddaughter Augusta Vera Duthie passed away in 1963, her will for the area was "to preserve the tradition and atmosphere of Belvidere as laid down by the Founder". While special rules for Old Belvidere properties, the upkeep of the church and communal grounds were thus laid down, nothing much at first happened with the Duthie's homestead and land. The upkeep of the historic Belvidere House and buildings however, was costly and it needed many repairs and upgrades for the next owners to live here (no electricity until the 1980's, no running water or sewerage!).
It took many years of indecision and planning for the future of this land and its conversion into a little township, until in 1987 finally the land was sold to the Board of Executors poperty company, establishing the Belvidere Estate development plan (some 167 lots) with its ideal of architectural harmony and large parkland areas on designs by a local resident in the Old Belvidere, who wanted to preserve the historic Belvidere House.
Belvidere House was thus incorporated into the Belvidere Estate development and opened as "Belvidere Manor Hotel" in 1989. The historic oak and gum avenue and indigenous forest have been protected and an exceptional diverse bird population, including the Knysna Lourie (now: Turaco) was achieved by the widespread planting of bird-attracting trees and shrubs.