It deals with a 50 year-old bell which has been acquired by St Mary’s, a Roman Catholic church in Pietermaritzburg. This highly welcome bolt from the blue is thanks to Bernhard Lazarus, Chairman of Non-Ferrous Metal Works in Jacobs in Durban. The church bell which had been made in London and weighs over 300kg, came as part of a consignment of scrap metal he received at the end of last year.

It was immediately recognised that the bell was a rare and valuable item and so a search was instituted to find out which church might be able to house an item of this size and weight.

There was an immediate response from St Mary’s in Pietermaritzburg whose parish priest, Mario Cerutti, is a lover of church bells and makes them in his spare time.

Patrick Leeman continues his article by stating that there are very few churches in South Africa which have a complete set of bells. These include St Mary’s Anglican Church in Greyville, and St Paul’s in the centre of Durban.