Mossel Bay Photos

On Saturday 20 October 2012 we went on an outing with the Mossel Bay Heritage Society. We visited the Masonic Lodge and St Thomas Catholic Church. I have previously posted pictures of the outside of the church. In the next few posts I am going to show you more of the Church and tell you a bit about its history

Built in 1879 by Weymouth & Pickard builders when the first building became to small. It is now an Arts and Craft Center.

Hidden behind the trees is the old Shirley Building that houses the Shell Museum.  It was built in 1902 as an extension of the old Mill and served as a store, furniture factory and garage.  In later years the building was used by Mr Joe Shirley for his plumbing business and became known as the "Shirley Building". The building was restored and is now used as a Shell Museum by the Dias Museum Complex.

One of the two Cape Dutch style cottages in the Dias Museum Complex’s gardens.  They are replicas, built on the original foundations, of houses which Alexander Munro built here in about 1830. Munro ran a seamen’s canteen in one of these buildings, and his family later operated a seal hunting and whaling station from the adjacent beach.

This is the entrance to the Maritime Museum inside the Dias Museum Complex. The building as originally erected in 1901 to serve as a grain and sawmill. It was re-designed in the 1980's to serve as a Maritime Museum. A life-sized replica of Bartolomeu Dias’s caravel is on display together with all aspects of the maritime history of the early Portuguese, Dutch and English navigators.

These houses are replicas of the cottages built here by Alexander Munro from Scotland in 1830.  They are built on the original foundations. Alexander Munro operated a canteen on the premises where unruly seamen met. His son got the first permit to catch whales on the beach below. The front house is one of Mossel Bay’s national monuments. Unfortunately these buildings are not open to the public.

The old milkwood tree (Sideroxylon inerme) inside the Dias Museum Complex has been used as a post office since 1501. In 1500, on his return journey from the east, Pedro de Ataide left a letter of importance in a shoe or iron pot under a tree.  In 1501 this letter was found by Joao da Nova, commander of the third East India fleet en route to India. In this way the first Post Office in South Africa was founded. The Post Office Tree has been declared a national monument.

Yersterday was a beautiful sunny day in Mossel Bay.  I was on my way to the post office in lunch but had enough time to take a picture of this lovely old Anglican Church in Marsh Street. The ground to built this church was donated by Mr J Hudson.  The nave was built in 1878 and 1879 by Weymouth and Anglican stone masons from Cornwall.  The tower and chancel were added in 1906.

The Cape St Blaze Cave is the site of one of South Africa's oldest archaeological excavations.  It was first excavated in 1888 by George Leith and many others after him.  The Cave has middens from the San or Khoekhoen people from about 200 000 years ago to the pre-colonial age (1488) The Cape St. Blaize Cave is always open to visitors. Signs on site provide general information about the archaeology.