Page 9 - Bulletin 13 2009

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From 1863 - 1874 the Dominican Sisters from Cape Town spent a month of the
Christmas holidays each year at Kalk Bay. They rented a house near the fish wharf;

travelled in a horse drawn equipage; and stopped at Farmer Peck’s Inn (where the
Cinnabar now stands in Muizenberg) to purchase supplies. A priest from Wynberg came

on horse back once a week to say Mass for them at the little chapel where he conducted

his regular Sunday service. This Sunday visit from Wynberg changed in 1874 when
Father Duignam was appointed Parish Priest at Kalk Bay. After the acquisition of

Springfield, the Kalk Bay trips ceased.

The small church served the community well until about 1898 when it became too small
for the increased number of worshippers. Prior to this the Diocese had bought a large

plot of ground for £1,200 on the opposite side of the road. Here, circa 1885, Father John

Duignam had built a Presbytery for himself and a Mission School. The total cost for
these two buildings was £400.

On 24 September 1898 the Right Reverend John Leonard, Roman Catholic Bishop and
Vicar Apostolic of the Western Cape Vicariate, wrote to the Under-Secretary for

Agriculture and asked him to please obtain the consent of his Excellency the Governor
for the right to sell the church and the land which Sir George Grey had granted in 1858.

Leonard had succeeded Bishop T. Grimley as Vicar Apostolic in 1873 and was well
versed with the situation at St. James. The contents of the letter below refer:

September 24 1898
To the Hon. Colonial Secretary of Cape Town.

Sir,

I have the honour to request that you will be pleased to obtain for me the consent of
His Excellency The Governor to my alienating a plot of land at Kalk Bay. This land,
th
in extent 100 ft by 100 ft was granted on the 27 day of October 1858 by Sir George
Grey to the late Right Revd. Dr Patrick Raymond Griffiths R.C. Bishop and Vicar
Apostolic and his successors for the time being for the erection of a chapel for the

use of the Roman Catholic worshippers at Kalk Bay.

I beg leave to urge my request for the following reasons.
I am Dr Griffiths’ successor in office; for the past twenty-five years I have been the
R.C. Bishop and Vicar Apostolic.
.