The first visit by an
Anglican priest 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. Revd. Clulee was head of the
Grammar School in Bloemfontein, and ran the
diocesan "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 in November 1870. He was temporarily appointed by the
bishop of Grahamstown (acting as
metropolitan bishop) "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
Barkly West); 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, during his visit, laid the foundation stone. It was also in February 1871 that the Revd
Henry Sadler 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. 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 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==