Methodist church receives heritage blue plaque
The church received it's blue plaque on Sunday after its morning service.
The Heidelberg Methodist Church received it’s blue heritage plaque on Sunday, after the church held their morning service.
The church itself sponsored the plaque as a means to look back on its many years of existence, coming from humble beginnings.
The first services held by the church were recorded in 1875.
In these early days of the church, services were conducted by ministers from other centres and by missionaries.
During 1890, Rev WB Milward was appointed as the first resident minister. At this time, there was still no church building and services were held in a shop in Ueckermann Street.
From here the congregation moved their services to a coach house in HF Verwoerd Street until a start could be made on the current building located on the corner of Strydom and Ueckermann streets.
Construction on the building began in 1894 and was completed the following year at a cost of about £3 000.
The church did not initially include the hall, but was the proud possessor of a fine pipe organ.
Rev George Waevind officially opened the church in 1895.
A glass stained window was donated by the English community to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (60 year reign) on June 22, 1897.
This window was damaged by the Boers during the Second Anglo Boer War, who threw stones at it and it still bears the scars.
On the inside of the building, on the western wall, a memorial can be found which was set up in honour of a brother (20) and sister (18) who died a few days apart of typhoid in 1897.
In 1902 the church manse was built at a cost of £1 300 and the church also boasted a fine 17-member choir, who were often invited to perform at various cultural functions.
Rev JM Carruth served the church from January 1959 to May 1966. The wooden entrance doors were donated in his honour by his sisters.
Harry Weakley served as a lay preacher for 49 years until his death. He started preaching at the church in 1894 at the age of 31. A plaque to him and his wife was erected by their children in 1955.
The church has seen a part of the town’s history being written and hopes to still contribute to the town’s future.
