Wilderness Heights, Dutch Reformed Church

Abstract

A few miles north of Wilderness stands a modest church that was built by D.A. Gerber and inaugurated on 3 October 1953 by the minister of the NG-church in Hoekwil, Dr. W.J.C. Lubbe. Behind the church stands a solid iron construction in which a bell is hanging. The reference to the founder figures on the shoulder of the bell, in between two pairs of two moulding wires: JOHN WARNER & SONS, FOUNDERS LONDON. 1920. Below this text we see a decorative band consisting of a set of circles that each contain two further circles with diminishing radius. Then follows again a moulding wire. There are three more moulding rings above the sound bow and a final pair on the lip. Notwithstanding its situation in the open air, the bell is in remarkably good condition. The Warner foundry in Cripplegate, London has had a large number of founders, eleven in a row. The indication Warner & Sons refers to the last persons in the founder’s dynasty that covered the period 1850-1924. Afterwards, the foundry was taken over by Mears.