St Peter’s Anglican Church

THE STORY OF SAINT PETER’S

 Although Saint Peter’s Anglican Church was built in Plettenberg Bay between 1878 and 1881, its story started before that, with the little wooden church of Saint Andrew which itself was proclaimed as a national monument in 1963. The following two pages contain an edited short story of the Church written by Patricia Storrar and reproduced verbatim here. [For reference: my comments and updates are not italicized].

  1. PETER’S

Bishop Gray had an incredible vision for the Church. During his time in South Africa, he was responsible, or partly responsible, for the building of 67 churches with his wife Sophy designing 40 of them.

When the Bishop visited in 1863, he was pressed into building a Church (St. Peter’s) by both the colored and the white folk, on the ‘block of ground’ given to them by the Government. Gray agreed and let them begin there and at a cost of £300. This amount was, however, not enough to include a roof which they planned to put on within three years.

The little wooden church was so quickly and so cheaply thrown together that many feared that it would fall or blow away before the roof could be erected. Indeed, Bishop Gray was heard to say, “There is scarcely a wall that is perpendicular!”

By this time William Henry Newdigate had built his second home, ‘Forest Hall’, at the Crags, and Robert Gray could not leave without seeing his old friend. He and his wife Sophy went to spend a few days with William and his family at his grand new country seat, Forest Hall, and afterwards recorded that the house was in the last part of his diocese and almost inaccessible.

On Sunday morning, the Bishop celebrated Holy Communion in the large dining room with forty people. This was quite extraordinary, if you take into account that there were only 95 people living in the newly opened district and that it was quite a distance away. So much so that William met Bishop Gray and his wife at the Keurbooms River with fresh horses to enable them to complete their journey from Plettenberg Bay. I am sure that the congregation and friends might also have been enticed by the fact that they would be able to see the grand new manor house!

The wily old Bishop took the opportunity to persuade William to set aside some of his ground in Kirbywood (Kurland) to allow local Colored folk to set up a village of their own, a graveyard and build a church.

Sophy, an architect, used the time to catch up on some relaxation, but also brought along some designs for a new and permanent stone church for St. Peter’s, just to wave under William’s nose, and possibly, just possibly, some ideas for St Michael’s at the Crags.

In 1869, after the disastrous fires of 1866 and the terrible drop in property prices, using the money raised by William Henry Newdigate, Gray bought, for £200 at a Government auction, a house with 18 acres of land, situated on the foreshore overlooking the bay.

Sometime in the midwinter of 1875, all fears and prophecies came to pass when a gale blew down the wooden mission church of St. Peter’s!  

Serendipitously, in 1803, General Janssens had instructed the Commandant of the ‘Black Water Wood Cutters’ (one Johan Friedrich Meeding, to build a second wood store in the grounds of the existing ‘Pakhuis en Militeeren Logies’ (now the Old Rectory).

The recently re-appointed Curate Edwin Gibbs used this little building as a chapel, whilst he, along with churchwardens Aaron Toplis (the treasurer) and William Jones decided to form a building committee and get on with the construction of a new proper stone church.  

They still had Sophy Gray’s plans which had been approved in 1869. They grafted onto their committee Captain John Fisher Sewell, William’s brother John Jones, and the recently enthroned Bishop West-Jones. The building committee was headed up by Bishop West- Jones who had taken over from Robert Gray.

William Jones, now a builder as well as his other tributes, submitted a tender of £350 to build the church. His proposal was accepted, and he promised to complete the work in two years.

At the time the contract was drawn up by Captain Sewell in 1876, there was £75 in the building fund: £150 came from the Newdigate Fund, £50 was promised by the Diocese and £100 promised by the People of Plettenberg Bay. “The rest they would raise somehow,” which they eventually did, some of it in kind — V. Armoed, quarried some stone for free, Jacob Jack made bricks and Aaron Toplis supervised the work.

Can you only imagine how tricky it must have been working together; an ascetic treasurer cum clerk of works, a happy go lucky builder, who had never built a building of this type before, and nervous priest, who never had a penny in his life, still trying to pass his exams and a giant of a sailor now harbour master as lawyer, working together.

Four months after the signing, Gibbs wrote to the bishop, reporting that the contract had been signed by the Building Committee “on behalf of St Peters so we have collectively guaranteed payment” and that 20000 bricks had been baked. 

The arch stone above the front door was laid in 1879 and the first service held on 5 May 1881. On 14 August 1881, His Lordship, Bishop West- Jones, consecrated “The pretty little stone church of Peter the Fisherman in the village of Formosa”. The total cost was £850-12-0d.

The Treasures of Saint Peter’s

Over the last 140 years, generation after generation has worshipped within the walls of this delightful little church. It has been a mainstay in family life – children have been christened, matured, and grown up in its teachings. New families have been welded together here and each generation has left something of itself behind. Those are the treasures we cherish, the shadows of its history and the people who made them.

Let’s return to the story of the church and its incredible heritage. Sophy (Sophia) Gray had passed on and was no longer there to assist with the completion of the church. From the beginning, its decoration and furnishing were closely monitored, leading to some bitter debate, particularly between the two wardens, Aaron Toplis and William Jones.

William Jones saw the interior as the churches were back in Ireland. He saw stained glass and painted pictures. Indeed, he had previously ordered a ‘painted window’ costing £60 from England and donated it in memory of his wife Maria. He “was anxious – according to his lights to decorate the church -” He ordered three paintings to fit into the frames of the reredos: the Crucifixion in the centre and Saint Mark and Saint Peter on either side. The Archdeacon of George, Curate Edwin Gibbs, and the whole congregation were enthusiastic, so he commissioned the artist R Edgecombe-Chevallier to paint them and got the bishop to sanction the placing of them in the church.

I don’t know where Aaron Toplis was at this time, but when he got back, he was having none of it. He wanted whitewashed walls and no painted images in the church and dug in his heels against some heavyweight opposition. There was much mudslinging but, in the end, he won.

And so! For the next 50 years, it was whitewash!

THE TREASURES OF SAINT PETER’S

Over the years tastes change. Both Jones and Toplis were no longer there.

Stained Glass Windows

In 1948, Father Earp-Jones started to promote the installation of stained glass. On 7 November 1948, he received a quotation from Jones and Willis of Birmingham for £34.00.00 each.

The Wheeldon family offered to raise the necessary funds amongst their friends and others, in memory of their young son, Brian, who died at the age of 16. The fund grew steadily with small amounts being donated by many people. By late 1951, they had collected £118. Herbert Evans of Johannesburg tendered a price of £30 including insurance and postage for each window, and once this had been accepted, Kathleen Quigley, their artist, started production. There was much discussion regarding the images and a lot of grumbles about delays, but they were finally delivered on 3 October 1952:

1st ‘Sowing the seed

2nd Reaping what you sow

 3rd St Michael

4th St Andrew

5th St Peter

6th St Chad

7th St Paul

8th The Angel Gabriel

9th the Virgin Mary

 

The Bell Arch was erected in 1964 as a stance of solidarity with our colored families against the injustice of the Group Areas Act against the people of our Congregation, our town, and our country.

The memorial plaque on the Bell Arch which reads: “To the Glory of God “and in grateful memory of Michael William Dunn, Catechist and Sub-deacon, Foundation member of the Order of Simon of Cyrene.” This Order takes its name from St. Simon featured in Station 5. We might add he was the Principal of our Mission school of over 40 years and a wise leader through those trying times.

 

The bell itself was cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, one of the oldest bell foundries in the world. Established in 1570 in Whitechapel Road, London, it was here that some of the most famous bells in the world were cast:  the foundry was closed in June 2017. We can assume that this bell was cast circa 1964.

 

The Pulpit is small but finished in the warm glow of the rich hardwoods of the area and embellished with just enough carved woodwork to give it richness without drawing attention away from the speaker. For me, the biggest surprise was when I discovered that it stands on one leg. The pulpit was presented to the church by members of the congregation on Saint Peter’s Day 1947 in Memory of Bishop Gray.

 

The Altar – In memory of William Breach, Deacon, in charge from 1892 to 1909.

 

The Dawn Leggat Nativity Scene – This is one of the hidden treasures of St Peter’s. It is composed of eight full-size figures made from paper and corrugated cardboard.

 

Dawn Leggat turned dress pattern paper and the inner lining of cement bags into a magical nativity scene which is unveiled every Christmas on the stage of Saint Peter’s. Full-size characters beguile, intrigue and stimulate our imaginations.

 

Dawn’s skills were homed in the TV industry. When she retired to Plettenberg Bay, she left behind, an ‘A team’ and a fully equipped workshop but the artist in her could never retire. Her skills were soon discovered when the Drakensberg Boys Choir came to town, and she was asked to decorate the stage. Her creation of two-dimensional figures led to an exhibition at the Old Jail Gallery in Knysna where she received amazing acclaim.

 

In her own words, she then decided, “To take my work more seriously and began to make the three-dimensional figures for St Peter’s — life size! Being very time consuming, I could only make one or two a year. Balthazar, carrying his casket of gold, was the last and most adventurous of the tableau and I finished it 12 years ago”.

 

When I first contacted Dawn, her first words to me were, “Is it still in one piece?” It still is, but sadly, it is not always on display; it is only appropriate for us to bring it out once a year but we at Saint Peter’s still consider ourselves lucky to be the custodians of such an extraordinary work of art.  

 

The Entrance Gateway was erected in memory of Denys Alfred St Chad Earp-Jones of the Support Company, 1st Transvaal Scottish Regiment, killed in action in the Battle of Alamein 23rd October 1942.

The Bird Bath was presented by Archdeacon Reginald Earp-Jones on 29th Jume 1949  in celebration of his 25th anniversary as Rector of the Parish.

 

The Sundial is a bit of a mystery, but we know that it was made by Troughton and Simms of London in 1848. All sundials are made for a particular latitude and longitude, and when traced back, this one was made for a site on the Garden Route, somewhere between Knysna and Natures Valley. When narrowed down, it is within 700 metres of Redbourne and St Andrew’s which was built in 1847, so we can conclude that it was probably bought by William Henry Newdigate for St Andrew’s and later moved to St Peter’s.

 

Gate at the bottom of the garden – one of the prayer desks in the Sanctuary belonged to Bishop Sidwell, the first Bishop of George. He had such a soft spot for St. Peter’s that he bought a home in Breach Street, just below the church, for his retirement. To make life easy for his wife, Mabel, the parishioners proposed a gate, which his niece offered to finance. Many, including myself, still use the gate and now you know the story, should you use it, you can give Henry and Mabel a thought. To keep up the tradition, the Warden, Peter Gaylard, bought the house and lived here. The gate also gave me a reason to draw the back of the church.

 

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Stations of the Cross have been in our churches from time immemorial and are used mainly during Easter services. But there is more to them than that; they keep the immense sacrifice of Our Saviour, the foundation of our faith, before our eyes at all times.

 

The notion of having a set of Stations of The Cross permanently placed in the church was first mooted on 11 June 2019 as a memorial of the worldwide COVID-19 epidemic and those who died from it.

 

Preliminary designs were submitted to the council at a meeting on 5 July 2019 and again at the council meetings of August, October, and November. Then, in November 2019, at a Chapelry Breakfast, it was suggested, that one of the Stations be made so that everyone could get a better idea of the proposal. This was done at a council meeting in December 2019. There it was agreed that I would sculpt the first one and hang it in the church so that the congregation could get a feel for it.

 

It still took time to reach some consensus. It must be understood that St. Peter’s congregation is composed of people with many different churchmanship, mostly Anglicans both ‘high’ and ‘low’ church, but there are also many other denominations not represented in Plettenberg Bay. Finally, on March 15th after Sunday Service, the congregants were given a pamphlet explaining the concept along with voting papers on which to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Fourteen congregants voted ‘no’ while 58 voted ‘yes’ .The application was delayed by COVID-19, but the faculty was finally issued by Bishop Brian on 3 October 2020.

 

1 JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH It is here that the saddest journey in the world begins. In this station, Jesus has just heard the sentence that He is to be crucified.

 2 JESUS TAKES UP HIS CROSS Jesus starts his journey to Golgotha by taking up the cross.

 3 JESUS FALLS FOR THE FIRST TIME Jesus falls for the first time.

 4 JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER This is a poignant moment: “Are you sure, you are doing the right thing?”  – a searching stare. He looks back with assurance.

5 SIMON OF CYRENE IS DELEGATED BY THE CENTURION TO CARRY THE CROSS FOR JESUS He is an unwilling participant.

 6 VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS This very old tradition has been augmented over the centuries. There are many versions of the lady who takes pity on Jesus.

 7 JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME The tradition here is that this station symbolizes the fall of mankind.

 8 JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM Jesus is addressing the women of Jerusalem with these words: “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”

9 JESUS FALLS FOR THE THIRD TIME This time, He falls prostrate on the ground. His enemies and accusers, in their evil and shallow self-interest, are present to satisfy themselves that the sentence is carried out.

 10 JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS This is after His third fall and before He is nailed to the Cross.

 11 JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS Here the image is of Jesus’ hand, nailed to the cross, a shocking and gruesome image. The cross lies on a field of grass and daisies.

12 JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS We look down from above as if we are flying with Him, close to the moon, high above Jerusalem.

 13 THE BODY OF JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS We see the dead body of Jesus in the arms of Joseph of Arimathea.

 14 JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB Here, Jesus lies in the tomb wrapped in the shroud and watched over by Joseph and his helper.

15 THE EMPTY TOMB Traditionally there were only 13, then 14 Stations of the Cross. Now there is a more modern philosophy, which suggests that there should be a 15th, Station.

 

 

Bibliography –

 

  • Patricia Storrar – a Pamphlet given to visitors to St Andrew’s, 1978
  • Patricia Storrar – Portrait of Plettenberg Bay – Centaur Publishers Cape town 1978
  • Patricia Storrar – The Paradise Coast – TYM publishing -Johannesburg 2001
  • Desmond Martin – The Bishop’s Churches – Struik, Cape Town 2005
  • Upon this Rock – Peter Milburn-Pyle 125th Anniversary brochure – 2006
  • The Story of Jesus – National Geographic New York 2016 (various authors)
  • The Church files; on the purchase and raising of the funds by the Wheeldon family original letters and some drawings.
  • Pamphlet (now out of print) – A Guide to St Peter’s
  • Caption for the book written by Dawn Leggat (slightly reduced)
  • The Formosan Magazine -April 2019
  • Wikipedia
  • Papers and discussions with Leigh Dunn