Stone church in Knysna

This was the first church built in Knysna, in 1849.

Knysna was then a very poor community, and it took the town ten years to save the money to build the church. At the commemoration ceremony John Rex (the son of George Rex) gave a speech and they laid the cornerstone with a newspaper and one each of all the coins of the time carefully wrapped in canvas underneath it.

Well, it was a poor town, and in the morning the stone was found on its side and the coins were gone!

They relaid the stone with more coins underneath, and this time John Rex sat on it till the cement had set the next morning!