Sunshine Simplicities

𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁. 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘄'𝘀: It’s been more than two years since I last visited the little wooden church in the valley, so I was not sure what to expect, but once again it was simply too beautiful.

The only difference being that this time I knew where I was going (well I thought I did), and also there were no bees.🐝

Google Maps offered me two options, so I chose the never-before-travelled-road with a ‘similar ETA’… rubbish, after driving a gravel road for a few kilometers, it eventually whittled away to a donga-bashing ‘jeep track’ with a ‘Private Road’ sign… just in case I was feeling too adventurous.🤣

So just a little detour before I headed back to Piesang Valley Road and then it was the familiar gravel.

Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t…

Welcome to St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, the oldest church in the Parish of Knysna.

The little wooden church, was built during 1850/1851 by William Henry Newdigate, born in May of 1824 at Astley Castley (which dates back to 1266), he was the third son of Francis and Lady Barbara Maria Newdigate, daughter of the third Earl of Dartmouth.

William was just 23 when he arrived in South Africa, but before long he owned five farms in this area, Buccleugh, Redbourne, Ladywood, Astley and Jackal’s Kraal.

Encouraged by Robert Gray, the first Bishop of Cape Town, William wrote to his father outlining his plans to build a temporary church. Francis immediately began raising funds to cover the building costs.

William in the meantime had gone ahead with the building of the Redbourne church (St. Andrew’s), paying for the construction out of his own pocket.

A total of £1,000 was raised and handed to Bishop Gray to be invested until needed for the building of a permanent church. Thirty years later St. Peter’s Church (of which I recently wrote) was built in 1880.

The yellowwood and stinkwood structure was completed with the help of local labour, many of them skilled workmen mostly from England, among them Charles and William Smith, and John Noble.

Now you may wonder why the first church in the District of George was built down a gravel road amidst dense bush, but back in the day the Piesang Valley was the first part of Plettenberg Bay to be populated.

The first permanent resident was Cornelis Botha whose farm was situated where the Country Club is today… remember Baron Van Plettenberg spent the night at his farm in 1778 before planting the Possessional Stone that I posted about earlier.

Anyway, in 1851, the year in which the church was completed, William married 17-year old Caroline, eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Henry Duthie and Mrs. Caroline Duthie (née Rex), of Belvidere.

You don’t need to guess which church I visited next…🙌🤗

Source: Plett Anglican Church website