As you head towards Longwood House, as you undoubtedly will, just past Napoleon’s Tomb you will come across St Micheal’s Church on a nice little elevation on your right at Hutt’s Gate (just an intersection). Do stop for a closer look at this small but rather quaint church and its old graveyard either going up to Longwood or on your way back down.
The church dates from 1862 (though its was substantially built in the inter World War period) and is parish church of one of three Anglican parishes on the Island. The other church in the parish, St Mark’s, is located at Longwood.
Internally the church is beautiful in its simplicity and plainness. Note the oil lamps used to light the church.
Have a wander around the pretty graveyard.
Just to prove that not all is idyllic in paradise you can see the gravestone of Edward Gunnell and his son Robert (the most left headstone in my last picture above). Robert, signalman at the Prosperous Bay Signal Station, was shot dead on 2 November 1904. His killers Louis and Richard Crowie were arrested two days later, tried on 11 January 1905, found guilty and executed on 2 February 1905 – no messing around on St Helena!
Close to St Michael’s is the site where astronomer, Edmund Halley set up an observatory with a 24-foot-long (7.3 m) aerial telescope in 1676 to study the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. The near-by Halley’s Mount is named after Halley.
In coming to St Helena, Halley gave up his undergraduate studies as Oxford. Why he did this is uncertain but the most likely explanation is that with the opening of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1675, Flamsteed – the then Astronomer Royal – undertook the task of mapping the northern hemisphere stars and Halley decided to complement this by undertaking a similar task for the southern hemisphere. Halley was an accomplished astronomer at this stage – in his mid to late teens.
Surprisingly, certainly to me, the weather on St Helena proved less good for astronomical observations than Halley had hoped. Despite this Halley spent around 18 months on the Island and mapped 341 stars and discovered a star cluster in Centaurus. He also made the first complete observation of a transit of Mercury on November 7, 1677.
While there is a decent view towards Longwood from here there is nothing to suggest the Halley once resided here.
The church was open when I visited and I suspect it is normally so. If it is locked, I understand the priest lives across the road and I imagine he would not mind you dropping in for a chat and to gain access.
This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries on my trip to St Helena. I suggest you continue with my next entry – Plantation House – The Governor and Jonathan – or to start the loop at the beginning go to my St Helena Introduction entry.
The Rambling Wombat 