Knysna, Holy Trinity Church

Abstract

Photographs and information on the Holy Trinity Church and its bell in Belvedere, Knysna. Outside Knysna, the Belvidere Manor, Holy Trinity Church is a Sophie Gray building with a bell sitting in a bell cote. Information on this church can be found in a memoir of the Reverend Alfred George Duthie of Belvidere, South Africa and of William Henry Moore Duthie of Belvidere, South Africa, edited by Annie Hart, M.A. and Robert C H Hart, B.A., Oxford University Press, 1934. In the bell-cote hangs a bell that caries as inscriptions C. & G. MEARS, FOUNDERS, LONDON PRESENTED BY FRANCIS NEWDIGATE ESQRE. 1854. Before reaching its destination the ship that carried the bell was wrecked and lay for some time under water until it was saved and hung in the turret for which it had been cast. Many years later, in 1921, the steel hinge from which the clapper is suspended was found to have corroded and broken away – probably as a result of its early immersion in salt water. The necessary repairs, which required expert knowledge, were executed by the late Mr. William McHattie through the courtesy of Messrs. Thesen & Co.’