The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin,

Barkly West Barkly West is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, situated on the north bank of the Vaal River west of Kimberley. Establishment and naming Barkly West was initially known as ''Klip Drift'' (sometimes written as Klipdrift). This ...

, was for some years the principal

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish on the Diamond Fields, South Africa, and the churches established soon afterwards at the Dry Diggings – what would become

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

– were at first mere outstations.

Establishing the Anglican Church on the Diamond Fields

The first visit by an

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

to the Diamond Fields, in 1870, came from the Free State when the Revd Charles Clulee, born in 1837 Birmingham, England, spent part of a winter holiday there from

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein ( ; ), also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State (province), Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongsi ...

. Revd. Clulee was head of the

Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

in Bloemfontein, and ran the

diocesan In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

"Native Mission". Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Diamond Fields – which, like the Diocese of Bloemfontein as a whole, lay beyond the Queen's dominions – was first officially extended with the arrival of Archdeacon Henry Kitton from

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

in November 1870. He was temporarily appointed by the

bishop of Grahamstown The Bishop of Grahamstown is the Ordinary of the Diocese of Grahamstown in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The Bishop's residence is at Bishopsbourne, Grahamstown. List of Bishops of Grahamstown Diocesan bishops # John Armstron ...

(acting as

metropolitan bishop In Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), is held by the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a Metropolis (reli ...

) "to the pastoral charge of the whole district on both sides of the river." Anglican services and rites were to be performed only by the archdeacon or clergymen he had authorized – until permanent arrangements were made. Within a month, "Church of England Services" were being advertised and held at Pniel, "in the new church tent"; in the Music Hall at Klipdrift (afterwards called

); and also at Good Hope. Moving swiftly to consolidate an Anglican presence, Kitton convened a meeting of the English Church Committee in December 1870. R.W. Murray, accepting office as secretary, advocated the erection of a church building and in February 1871 the British High Commissioner

Sir Henry Barkly Sir Henry Barkly (24 February 1815 – 20 October 1898) was a British politician, colonial governor and patron of the sciences. Early life and education Born on 24 February 1815 at Highbury, Middlesex (now London), he was the eldest son of Sus ...

, during his visit, laid the foundation stone. It was also in February 1871 that the Revd

Henry Sadler Henry Sadler or Sadleir ( – 17 March 1618), of Everleigh, Wiltshire and Hungerford, Berkshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1571 and 1587. He was elected MP for Lancaster in 1571, 1572, 1584, 1586 and was ...

arrived via Bloemfontein, and was referred to as "Chaplain to the Fields", within the Diocese of Bloemfontein. Sadler had been recruited in England during Bishop Robert Gray's recent visit there.Gray, C. 1876. ''Life of Robert Gray''. London: Rivingtons He saw to the completion of the church building. St Mary the Virgin, Barkly West, was dedicated in November 1872, with Fr E. Stenson as first rector. It held its place as the first and principal parish at this western edge of the Diocese of Bloemfontein until gradually other parishes – such as those in Kimberley – could stand on their own (having initially been chapelries administered from Barkly). When eventually in 1911 the Bishops of the

Church of the province of South Africa The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are loc ...

agreed to the formation of a separate Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, Kimberley, soon to be officially a city, had for long eclipsed Barkly West in size and importance, both civil and ecclesiastical.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary, St 19th-century Anglican church buildings in South Africa Buildings and structures in the Northern Cape 1872 establishments in the Orange Free State 1872 establishments in South Africa 1872 in Christianity