No. 428 - St Andrew's at Bothwell

-
Bothwell is one of the oldest settlements in Tasmania. It is situated on the Clyde River, about 75km miles from Hobart. The name Bothwell was given by Governor Arthur after "Bothwell" in Scotland. Bothwell is classified as an historic town. The majority of the first settlers were from Scotland. Bothwell once had four churches of which the Anglican, Uniting (Presbyterian) and Catholic remain.

Bothwell’s first Catholic church opened in 1864 [see No. 424 ] but was replaced by a new church that was built in 1940. In the 1930’s fundraising began to build a new church, ostensibly because of problems with the foundations and because the building was considered too small. The stone was reused in the new church which is not much larger than the building it replaced.

The opening of the new church took place in April 1940 and the Mercury’s report on the occassion is reproduced below:

“…The blessing and opening of a new church at Bothwell were performed by the Archbishop of Hobart (the Most Rev. Dr. J. D. Simonds) yesterday….. Father Adlum was associated with the Archbishop at Bothwell, when he blessed and opened a new church. Visitors included the Attorney-General (Mr. Ogilvie), and Mr. Dwyer. The first Roman Catholic church at Bothwell was built 70 years ago, and was blessed by the first Roman Catholic Bishop, of Hobart (the Rev. Wilson). The new church was built out of the stone from the old building, and the total cost, including the furnishings, was £678. The parishioners of the Bothwell district raised £300 before the work was put in hand, and prior to the opening there was a debt of £378 on the building. This amount was reduced by £50 yesterday by donations at the opening. Members of the Baker family, of Castle View, Bothwell, provided new altar rails for the church, and other articles were given by Mr. J. Goggins, Mesdames Stewart, and Best. The Archbishop congratulated the people of Bothwell on having provided a new church, and paid tribute to the work of the contractor (Mr. J. Goggins, of Bothwell)”.

St Andrew’s falls under the Central Tasmania Parish which includes churches at Ouse, Ellendale and New Norfolk.

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019

Sources:

The Mercury, Saturday 30 September 1939, page 10
The Mercury, Thursday 1 February 1940, page 8
Huon and Derwent Times,Thursday 25 April 1940, page 5
The Mercury, Monday 22 April 1940,  page 8 

https://hobart.catholic.org.au/church/st-andrews-bothwell


Comments

  1. Bernie9 June 2019 at 21:07

    Lovely, my grandparents & great grandparents Goggins & in later years played a part helping with the reading's etc. Great history being kept Grant & thank you

    ReplyDelete

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. 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

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