Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk - Hertzog Balfour district, Eastern Cape

Date: 1834 - 1845 Type: Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk - Church Status: Extant   Click to view large map Coordinates: 32°34'37.69" S 26°43'06.13" E

See more photographs This church, the cornerstone of which was laid on 4 June 1834, was only completed at the beginning of 1845 owing to the devastation brought about by the Sixth Border War (1834-1835). (Translation of Afrikaans wording on engraved metal plaque on entrance door) The external walls of the church are formed with a dressed stone plinth, a substantial dressed stone base with prominent tuck pointing and a rough-cast plastered wall above. The church is oriented on a north-south axis, with entrance through a double door at the northern gabled end. The altar is placed at the southern end and a double storeyed wing at this end accommodates the sacristy. The church has a central crossing formed by two splayed bays on the east and west sides of the nave. The crossing is articulated with an extraordinary octagonal timber-lined saucer domed ceiling. Both the north and south ends of the nave are also splayed at both re-entrant corners, creating an internal space with a pleasing spatial quality. A timber gallery (probably later) with a raked floor over the north end is accessed by a set of symmetrically placed staircases which flank the entrance door. The daylighting to the church was achieved with six pairs of tall lancet windows with cottage panes - each pair of windows with a small triangular inward-opening top-hung fanlight between them at the upper level. The two windows in the crossing are taller than the four windows in the nave. Expanded metal screens have been installed in the external reveals of the windows to protect the window panes. Finely crafted white marble plaques commemorate the first three priests who served the congregation. The plaques are each set on a black mount and are placed at high level on the internal walls at the south end of the church. The three plaques are in Dutch and record the following details: THOMSON, William R.: First priest (leeraar) to the congregation from 1829 to 1869 and who died on 4 May 1891 (Plaque on left hand side of altar). PIETERSON, Pieter R. : Second priest (leraar) to the congregation from 1869 to 1875 and who died 18 October 1881 (Plaque on right hand side of altar). FAURE, Abraham: Third preacher (leraar) to the Stockenstrom congregation from 15 May 1875 up to his death on 3 June 1927 (Plaque centralised behind altar). An octagonal louvred timber ventilator is set into the front gable to ventilate the roof space. The original boarded timber roof is visible below the corrugated iron from within the roof space and is probably yellow wood. This boarding - supported on purlins on substantial king-post trusses - suggests that the roof was possibly originally clad with malthoid, or with a standing seam sheet metal such as zinc, or possibly with slates. An original cast bronze church bell is mounted on a cast iron bell-frame surmounted by a turned finial. The bell frame spans between two plastered brickwork columns which form a free-standing support structure on the southeast side of the church. An inscription - between a pair of raised horizontal lines around the perimeter of the upper body of the bell - includes the following text (albeit that transcription is possibly incomplete): THOMSON KAT CAIRD & Co GK 1834 The significance of this inscription is suggested below: THOMSON - missionary priest who placed the order and presumably paid for the bell KAT - the Kat River Congregation CAIRD & Co - foundry responsible for casting the bell GK - Gereformeerde Kerk 1834 - Casting date The church has recently been renovated (June 2016). It is presumed that the pointed stonework base to the external walls was then painted and the horizontal beam spanning between the two attached columns flanking the entrance door on the north elevation was removed. The latter change has negatively affected the original trabeated feature of the gabled entrance elevation. (William MARTINSON, July 2016)