Bathurst : Church of St John, The Evangelist

Our next stop in Bathurst was the Church of St John The Evangelist.  This church is the oldest unaltered Anglican Church in South Africa.  During the Frontier wars it was also used as a sanctuary for hundreds of British Settlers.
The foundation stone was laid in 1832 and the church was opened on 1 January 1838 and it was declared a Nation Heritage site in 1967.
All around the church is old graves.  We spend a lot of time walking around between theses gravestones.  We even found graves for some original British Settlers who cam to South Africa in 1820.

We talked to a man who was visiting his family graves and he told us about a Powder magazine close to the church.  He tried to give us directions but it sounded difficult to find.  He then said he would take us there. 

The Old Powder Magazine was erected in 1821 by the British Military.  It usually carried about 273kg gunpowder, 7 000 ball cartridges and 60 rifles as stock.  It was declared a national Monument in 1976.
We returned to the church for a few photos of the War Memorial before going to Port Alfred for an early dinner.
Location: R67, Bathurst, South Africa

Comments

  1. Kathy07 May, 2017 12:29

    Lovely post. DO you have any other pictures of the War memorial at Bathurst? I have fove my gr gr grandfathers name, but I am not sure what the rest of the memorial looks like.

    If you could share some photos I would really appreciate it.

    Thanks
    Kathy

    ReplyDelete

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