Contact Artefacts
please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.

St Andrew's Anglican Church - St Andrew's Retreat
Mooi River district, KwaZulu-Natal

Date:1901
Type:Anglican Church
Style:Kent Style
Status:Extant

 


Click to view map

Coordinates:
29°11'13.25" S 29°55'13.73" E Alt: 1480m

Adaptively reused as a guest house.

One of the most beautiful churches of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, St Andrew’s was built in 1906 to serve the Anglican farmers west of Mooi River as well as the scholars and staff of Weenen Country College, which moved to a nearby site on the Giant’s Castle road in 1901.

Built in the style of the legendary Sir Herbert Baker, the church echoes the design of a church in Kent in the United Kingdom, the birthplace of Percy Simmons, a prominent farmer in the area who was a central character in the building of the church. St Andrew’s is set on two acres of land donated by John Evan Oates. The church is built of sandstone, laid over two years by a Mr Nelson and his sons of Hlatikulu. The woodwork was the handicraft of the carpentry instructor at Weenen County College, Mr JD Owen. The round stained glass window above the alter was added in 1907 in memory of Mr and Mrs Thompson of Weenen County College, both closely associated with the church-building efforts.

The Right Reverend Frederick Samuel Baines, Bishop of Natal, consecrated the church in 1906, at a ceremony that included 130 people plus the staff and pupils of Weenen County College. Today guests at St Andrew’s can still see a tablet on which are inscribed the names of old boys of the college who gave their lives in the First World War. The little graveyard to the rear of the church is reached through a side road and is accessible for the community.

(St Andrew's Retreat website - September 2014)

All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.