Swellendam, Stormsvlei, Old Dutch Reformed Church

Abstract

Photographs and information on the Dutch Reformed Church and its bell at Stormsvlei between Swellendam and Riviersonderend. The location Stormsvlei between Riviersonderend and Swellendam used to have a public Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk. The original church was built in 1890. It burned down in 1983 but was rebuilt in 1990. A couple of years ago the whole site has been privatised. On the premises of the estate, next to a small church, is a bell on a very strange pole. The bell itself is a traditional Barwell bell as we have encountered in many places in the Western Cape. The bell has been so often repainted with a black paint that the founder’s emblem became almost unreadable.