No. 239 - The Former Baptist Church at Montana

-

The arrival of the Baptists in the Deloraine district dates back to the late 1850’s. Over the next century Baptist churches were established in rural settlements south of Deloraine including at Liffey; Quamby Brook; Golden Valley; Meander and Montana.

The Montana church was built around 1914. There are no newspaper reports about its opening service but by the 1920’s, anniversary services; harvest festivals; fairs; Sunday services and weddings were regularly reported in the local press.  Links to some of these reports are provided at the bottom of the page.

Families which had strong connections with the early years of the Montana church include the Chilcott; Sutton; Murfett; Whiteley; Cox; Synfield and Homan; families.

The church has been closed for approximately 30 years and although it has been converted into a house its original form is still clearly recognisable.

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

LINKS:

 A Montana Wedding
A Lantern Lecture
A Montana Fair
A Farewell
A Sunday School Anniversary


Sources:

 Hemsley, Jennifer Around the country circuits : reminiscences of the Baptist Church family throughout "Tassie's top half". Regal Press, Launceston, Tas, 1996.

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 to grow. 
Read more

No. 1205 - Hobart - All Saints' Anglican Church (1859) - "A perfect specimen of architecture"

-
Image
The landmark All Saints Anglican church on Macquarie Street, South Hobart, is the second church built on this site. Following the creation of the All Saints parish in 1855, a ‘temporary church’, known as ‘All Saints chapel’, was erected as a place of worship until a permanent church could be built. [ see No. 575 ] In 1858 construction began on a new church. It was of an early English Gothic design by architect Henry Hunter. The building’s foundation stone was ceremonially laid on Thursday 2 December 1858: “The ceremony of laying the first stone of the Church proposed to be erected in the Upper part of Macquarie-street took place, as announced in the Courier of yesterday, at three o'clock in the afternoon. The ceremony was performed by His Excellency the Governor, attended by the Lord Bishop of Tasmania, in the presence of a large number of ladies and gentlemen, ….The parish of All Saints, which was formerly included in St. George's parish, is fast increasing in population, par
Read more

No. 1269 - Gould's Country - Union Church (1874)

-
Image
Gould’s Country a rural area off the Tasman Highway and is approximately 15 kilometres west of St.Helens. Although it is now virtually a ghost town, it once had a population of about 400 with a post office, school, three churches, council chambers, bank, hotel and a public hall. The town went into decline once tin mining in the district ceased. The district is named after Charles Gould, who was appointed the first Geological Surveyor in Tasmania (1859–69). The foundation of the Union Church is linked to Benjamin Smith who arrived in Gould’s County in 1870. Smith was a devout Methodist and was instrumental in establishing a church. In 1871 when Bishop Charles Bromby passed through the district he observed: “In Gould’s Country I found a young but enterprising body of settlers, who had carried with them to their seclusion a love of religious ordinances. As no ordained clergyman lives within fifty miles of them, it was gratifying to find that one settler reads the prayers of the Church to
Read more