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9/2/106/0013

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27192

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Mission Church, Bovlei, Wellington District

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Anonymous

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Post date: 07/08/2012
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Archive Import
History: Only three church buildings and only one mission church in South Africa are older than the Wagenmakersvallei Church.
The first man to do missionary work amongst the slaves and coloured people in the Wagenmakersvallei was Jan Jacob van Zulch, a convert of the well-known Cape Town minister, the Rev. Helperus Ritzema van Lier. He started this work here in 1796 and built a meeting. house or “oefeninghuis” somewhere in the vicinity. In 1800 Van Zulch had to give up the work because of ill health, but it was continued by James Read, the Rev, van der Lingen and Bastiaan Tromp successively, all of them working under the aegis of the Suid-Afrikaanse Sendinggenootskap of Cape Town.
Meanwhile the Dutch Reformed congregation of Paarl whose area included the Wagenmakersvallei, began to interest itself in the missionary work there, and the Church Council appointed a certain Daniel Jacobus le Roux to conduct the services and teach the slaves. Le Roux immediately pressed for a proper church building. The Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, granted the necessary land and a building committee consisting of six farmers—three named Le Roux and three named Hauptfleisch—was constituted. Contributions were collected from Whites as well as non-Whites, and on 18th September, 1820, the church was inaugurated by the Rev. J. G. L. Gebhart, the minister of Paarl, in the presence of 200 people.

The uninterrupted services rendered to this congregation by leading missionary personalities are unexcelled in the history of missionary work in South Africa. During the period of 116 years from 1830 to 1946 the congregation had only four missionaries: the Rev. Isaac Bisseux of the Paris Missionary Society from 1830 to 1879; the remarkable Hollander, the Rev. J. C. Pauw from 1879 to 1910; and from then to 1946 — the Rev. J. P. de Villiers and the Rev. J. M. N. Breedt successively.
The building is thus seen to be of importance not only on account of its age, but by virtue of the part it played in the history of missionary activities in South Africa.
Proclaimed 1966"
Visual Description: The road to Bovlei branches off the Bains Kloof road just beyond Wellington. Three kilometres along this road, on the left, stands the group of buildings of the mission station known as the Dutch Reformed Mission of Wagenmakersvallei.

The building which, like other missionary churches of the time, was known as the “Gesticht” (Institute) or “Oefeninghuis”, was rectangular in shape and had a thatched roof and earth floor. The two side gables were added during the 1860’s and inaugurated on 21st October, 1869. This gave the building the shape of a T, the vertical stroke of the T being the original church with the gable bearing the date 1820. The thatched roof was replaced by corrugated iron in 1896 and in 1927 a wooden floor was built into the church.
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Construction Date: c1820
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