Wooden Beauty

This is the pulpit of the Historic Dutch Reformed Church in George, RSA. The church was consecrated in 1842, and is still in use today. The building is a historical monument and is kept in pristine condition.

During the time when this church was built, local, indigenous wood was plentiful and cheap. Indigenous forests were, and are still part of the Garden Route Area, but now with a few major differences: the wood has become a protected commodity, scarce and extremely expensive to buy. That is if you can get any!

This pulpit, of stinkwood, was designed, constructed and hand carved by a Mr Heyns. The cost, then, was R400, which is about 32 Euro?s!

For the ceilings,pillars, floor and benches, yellow-wood was used.

Being a ?young? country, we cannot compare the ages of our buildings to those found in Europe and elsewhere. But we still marvel at our historic sites, nonetheless.