Durban - How many times have you driven up and down to Durban, and passed a sign to a church at the top of Van Reenen’s Pass … and thought about popping in to have a look? And then thinking again: I’ll do it next time?
So, finally, I decided: let’s have a wee look … and, boy, was it worth the time spent.
It has been called the smallest church in South Africa and trying to fit through the door proves it – you can only get through one at a time. But, once inside, in the peace and quiet, sitting on one of only four pews, you start to read the history on the walls and the scripts planted around for your information.
It’s said to be plus or minus 20-odd bricks long and about 15 wide and has a curved end. It was modelled off a part of the Cardiff Cathedral in Wales, UK, but I think the pictures say it all much better.
The story goes that a retired magistrate, Maynard Mathew, wanted something to honour and remember his son Llandaff, who died saving eight miners in a coalmine accident at the Burnside Colliery in KwaZulu-Natal on March 19, 1925.
Mathew wanted a plaque in the Ladysmith Catholic Church to commemorate his son but because of his stature in those days it was denied, so he built his own little church. Charles West-Thomas bought it in 1960 and declared it a national monument.
Also known as the Llandaff Oratory, it is definitely the smallest Catholic church in this country, if not the world.
The house next door has a tea garden with fresh scones and jam worth sampling while you relax in this wonderful setting.
Saturday Star