Brackenfell

Brackenfell is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa at the gateway to the Cape Winelands. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality as a Northern Suburb and is about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Cape Town City Bowl. In Brackenfell a variety of property situated on the slopes of the Bottelary Hills can be found.
The Bracken Nature Reserve, situated in the Ruwari suburban area, was once a quarry site and was later declared a nature reserve after some negotiations between the Cape Town City Council and the Stellenbosch Divisional Council.
Brackenfell offers schools, shopping malls and medical services, and many different sporting facilities. Brackenfell has several major access roads including the N1, R300, Old Paarl Road and Bottelary Road.
History.
The earliest activity on what today is known as Brackenfell was when the "de Clapmuts" was a refreshment post. Brackenfell specifically form part of Klapmutsberg, better known as de Bottelarij. In 1712 the area known as "Kruispad" was transferred to Selie, J. Kruispad was owned by Brink, A. and in 1901 he sold it to a Scottish Immigrant Walton, G.H. The flora on this farm reminded him of the same in Scotland. He call it Brackenfell (Bracken means fern; Fell means hill). The richness of granite in the area let to the farm being sold to a Brick company in 1903 and a granite quarry was established. Activity here stopped in 1948. In 1904 a railway station was established.
Brackenfell used to be a major road crossing during the earlier days of Cape Town, but today it is a well-known suburb located behind the 'boerewors gordyn’ which translates to sausage curtain, meaning; people living in this area, braai (barbecue) boerewors very often. "Gordyn" curtain is just by figure of speech. It's all said tongue-in-the-cheek.
Geography.
Brackenfell is located on the north-eastsern outskirts of the Cape Metropole (Cape Town metropolitan area). Being on the outskirts of the city and at the gateway of the Cape Winelands means that Stellenbosch, Paarl and Durbanville's wine farms are in easy access.
Located more or less halfway between the Cape Town and Paarl, Brackenfell is approximately 30 km north-east of Cape Town and 35 km south-west of Paarl.
The town is bordered by Kraaifontein in the north-east, Kuilsrivier in the south, Durbanville in the north-west and Bellville in the west.
Economy.
Brackenfell is home to many retail companies' head offices such as Shoprite, Checkers (falls under Shoprite) as well as Food Lover's Market. Shoprite-Checkers have a new distribution centre which was completed in 2019 in the Brackengate 2 Business Park named the Cilmore Distribution Centre.
Brackengate Field Hospital.
Due to the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in the Western Cape, the Western Cape Health Department constructed a field hospital in the Brackengate industrial area. It opened on 20 July 2020 with 10 patients. The field hospital has capacity 300 beds for Covid-19 patients from hospitals struggling with capacity.
The field hospital became the central Covid-19 dedicated hospital for the Western Cape in September as the Cape Town International Convention Centre's field hospital which was the central Covid-19 dedicated hospital was decommissioned in September due to declining Covid-19 cases in the City of Cape Town.
Coat of arms.
Brackenfell was a municipality from 1970 to 1996. In November 1971, the council registered a coat of arms at the Bureau of Heraldry.
The arms, designed by Cornelis Pama, were "Per chevron embowed Or and Vert, three shot balls counterchanged", i.e. a shield divided by a curved chevron-shaped line into gold and green, with two green balls at the top and a golden ball at the bottom. The crest was three ferns with the motto "Tenax in fide".