The Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin in Albert Road, Woodstock is surely one of the most beautiful churches in Cape Town.
St Mary’s started out as a simple rectangular building from 1856, possibly after Sophie Gray designs.
The church grew in various stages to its present appearance, achieved by 1897 when Sir Herbert Baker, with unusual sympathy, added the north aisle, a vestry and the tower.
As a result, when seen from the vacant ground on the east, St Mary’s has the unplanned, organic appearance of an early English parish church.
St. Mary’s possesses a ‘Westminster peal’ of bells. The set of eight bells was manufactured by Barwell of Birmingham and were installed on 15 December 1903. The first peal was rung a year later on 22 December 1904 and lasted 3 hours 7 minutes.
The Bell-ringers of St Mary’s - Woodstock - in 1953
Eight bell-ringers rang the ‘grandsire triples’
before the Coronation service at the church.
After the service they rang a quarter peal.
Clockwise from left:
Mr Stickley (caller/conductor), Alfred Gardiner, John Wood, John Ernstzen,
Mr Meyer, J. Riley, Oswald Lamb and center Clarence Gardiner
In those early days St Mary’s was the only tower at the Cape capable of ringing a full peal - fully hand operated.
In February 1965 the bells for St George’s Cathedral arrived in South Africa and the bells were installed in the tower, designed by Revel Fox, in 1970.
It was only in 1974 that the first peal was heard from St George’s Cathedral.
Today, St. George's Cathedral's bellringers still use St. Mary's Bell's for their practice sessions
This original artcle appeared in the Woodstock Bulletin Online. Thanks to the authors.
