The aerial view of the old Borrowdale Farmhouse and outbuildings is truly remarkable. Today the area is dotted with established trees and multi-million rand homes so it is hard to imagine the rural landscape of the past. In the article below Valerie Gordon-Bennett shares some of her memories of growing up on Borrowdale Farm before and during the early days of Sandton. The article first appeared in the 1994 annual magazine of the Sandton Historical Association.
An aerial view of Borrowdale Farm
Borrowdale Road in River Club, Sandton, runs up from the Braamfontein Spruit to what is now Coleraine Drive. In the 1930s and 1940s, the farm of the same name -Borrowdale Farm - covered most of the ground between Coleraine Drive Ballyclare Drive, the Braamfontein Spruit and Bryanston Drive, with Bryanston on its north - nearly 200 acres.
Site of Borrowdale Farm (google maps)
The name ‘Borrowdale’ came from my great-grandfather, William Spark, who lived in the small village of that name in the Lake District, and operated a ferry on Derwent Water. His son, my grandfather, Joseph Spark, came to South Africa in 1898 and worked as an engineer on the railways. He married...
