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 Bovlei, Wellington, Western Cape

Date: 1820 Client: South African Missionary Society Style: Cape Vernacular Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 33°37'53.02" S 19°02'49.15" E Alt: 181m

Also Wagenmakersvallei Dutch Reformed Mission Church. This church predates the founding of Wellington. The South African Missionary Society established a ministry in Wagenmakers­vallei in 1796 and ministered to slaves and to detribalised Khoikhoi people who worked as labourers to settler farmers. In 1820 they were succeeded by the Dutch Reformed congregation of Paarl and a small rectangular, thatched-roof church was buil, inaugurated by the Rev JGL Gebhard. Its first evangelist was PJ le Roux. The first missionary to be ordained here was the Frenchman Isaac Bisseau. The additional wings date from 1869, creating a T-plan. In 1896 the original thatched roof was replaced with corrugated iron, at which point, in all probability the Cape-Dutch gable was clipped. The front door is six-paneled under spoked fanlight while the others are eight-paneled under arched fanlights. The simple but elegant pulpit is of stink-and yellow-wood. This little church, the oldest in the district, is a landmark in the history of mission work in South Africa. It is still used by the people of Bovlei. (Show me South Africa (accessed 2023 05 09 10:40 UMT+2); Fransen 2004:308) Was declared a National Monument and is now a Provincial Heritage Site. Books and articles that reference Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk Fransen, Hans. 2004. The old buildings of the Cape. A survey of extant architecture from before c1910 in the area of Cape Town - Calvinia - Colesberg - Uitenhage. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pg 308 Oberholster, JJ. 1972. The historical monuments of South Africa. Cape Town: Rembrandt Van Rijn Foundation for Culture at the request of the National Monuments Council. pg 92-93