No. 51 - Hagley Presbyterian Church - Built with Bricks of a Brewery

-
Presbyterian services were held in Hagley as early as 1853. Services were held in a Methodist Chapel and also at the old Anglican (Church of England) Church which was eventually purchased by the Presbyterians in the 1870’s. This was the same chapel that had served as Hagley’s first school from 1855. There seemed to be some symbiosis in this arrangement:

"As the school was held in the church, services such as marriages caused breaks in the school time table - breaks that were appreciated by the scholars.” (Examiner )
With the needs of a growing congregation, the old Anglican Church was demolished and a new brick building was constructed. The bricks used to build the new church came from a demolished brewery, probably from Longford. It was opened in December 1879.  During the period of construction, the Presbyterians once shared the Methodist Church, which was a community with which they had a long standing good relationship.

Like so many rural churches, the Presbyterians suffered a gradual decline in number in the second half of the 20th century. By the 1970’s the congregation had shrunk to the point where the church was no longer viable. The building was subsequently sold and is now a private residence. The congregation was largely absorbed by the Methodist (Uniting) Church in Hagley, which will be the subject of another blog entry.

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018



SOURCES

Scott, E.G. (1985). Hagley (A Short history of the early days of the Village and district with notes on the pioneer families)

von Stieglitz, K.R. (1946). Then and now in old Westbury (with notes on Exton, Hagley and Carrick)

Examiner Saturday 3 October 1936

Examiner 15 December 1939


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Churches of Tasmania

-
Image
I love history and photography and also have an interest in architecture. When I started this blog in 2017 I had the goal of photographing every historical church in Tasmania. This was initially driven by the proposed mass sell-off of Anglican churches. I was concerned that these buildings would be modified and no longer be accessible once in private hands. As the years have passed this goal has changed to writing short histories of each and every church built in Tasmania, of which there are about 1600.   My earliest posts are rather amateurish but my research and writing has improved somewhat over the years.  In time my hope is to revise and update every article to a publishable standard. I have received an overwhelming amount of material from followers of the blog and I will incorporate this into the articles in the revision phase. Eventually I hope to publish the best of the articles. At present the blog attracts about 1000 views per day and I hope that this will continue ...
Read more

No. 592 - Gretna - St Mary the Virgin - "Worthy of Imitation"

-
Image
Gretna is a small township in the Derwent Valley approximately 60 kilometres from Hobart. The area was originally known as Stony Plains Hut and Macquarie Plains. The name Gretna was adopted in the early 20th century. The origin of this name comes from a local farm called ‘Gretna Green’ and also an Inn established in the 1860’s which bore the same name. Another Inn, the Woolpack Inn, was the scene of a gunfight between the bushranger Martin Cash and members of the local constabulary. Gretna’s only church stood a few hundred metres from the inn and Cash and his gang hid in the bush near the church until nightfall prior to raiding the Inn. For many years St Mary’s was known as “The Woolpack Church”. St Mary’s the Virgin was built in 1847 and was opened and consecrated by Bishop Nixon on 1 June 1848. At the service, Edward Terry, the owner of Askrigg estate presented the deed of land on which the church was built to Bishop Nixon. Before the church was erected it is believed that Anglican s...
Read more

No. 624 - Dunalley - St Martin's Anglican Church - "In grateful memory of the men who fought in the Great War"

-
Image
Dunalley is village on the Arthur Highway approximately 60 kilometres east of Hobart. It stands on the narrow isthmus connected to the Forestier Peninsula. The Denison Canal runs through the village and connects Blackman Bay and Fredrick Henry Bay. Dunalley was badly affected by bushfires in January 2013 with the town losing over 60 buildings including the Police Station and school. St Martin’s is the only public building left standing after the fires. St Martin’s Anglican has recently featured in the news following its sale. It is one of over 50 churches to be sold to meet the Anglican Church’s commitment to the National Redress Scheme. St Martin’s is an unusual church into two respects. Firstly, it is constructed from stone from the former Government stores at the old Coal Mines penal station at Saltwater River, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Secondly, the church was built as a memorial to the men of the district who fought and died in the Great War. As such, the buildin...
Read more