Page 14 - Bulletin 13 2009

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This caused considerable embarrassment and the Registrar of Deeds confessed to an
oversight in his department, which he explained was because “this condition of 1858

was inserted in an unusual position in the grant and was quite out of place.”

As the transfer had received the consent of His Excellency the Governor, who was

unaware of the oversight, the matter was left to stand, much to the relief of Bishop
Rooney and Father Duignam.

The second Roman Catholic Church

Construction of the Catholic Church at St. James was funded mainly from the £2000

that the Diocese had received from the Cape Government Railways for the sale of the

old church across the road. The Right Reverend Bishop John Rooney had appointed
George Ransome as far back as 1898 to be the architect. Ransome was a Yorkshireman

who had studied in Europe and was a great admirer of Italian Renaissance architecture.

Bishop Rooney was aware of Ransome’s architectural skills as he had completed many
buildings in Cape Town, and what better qualification than to have a man with Italian

Renaissance ideas to design a Roman Catholic Church.

Two years earlier, in 1896, in competition with five other leading architects, Ransome
had won the design proposal for the new Anglican Church of St. James in Sea Point.

His plans for that church had been accepted in June 1897. He now used a similar design

with quarry stonewalls with pitched roof at St. James, and the external likeness of these
two churches is noticeable. Needless to say, both churches received wide acclaim.

Work began in earnest in 1900 and Father John Duignam, who was best described as

Contracts Manager, Clerk-of-Works and Quantity Surveyor, took full charge of
construction. It was he who organised a special permit from the Kalk Bay-Muizenberg

Municipality (on which he had once served) for the use of sea sand from Danger Beach

for construction purposes, and it was he who arranged with Mr H. Stockman, resident-
agent for Sir John Jackson (Pty.) Ltd., contractor for the Selborne Docks in Simon’s