No. 904 - Woodrising Private Chapel

-
This chapel was built in the 1880s on the property ‘Woodrising’, near Spreyton, south of Devonport. The chapel was established by Reverend Claude Roberts after he purchased “Dean’s Point” in 1880 from Colonel Michael Maxwell Shaw, a retired Indian Army officer.

Roberts arrived in Tasmania with his wife Helen and children in 1879 and after spending some months at Hobart he moved to the North West Coast. He renamed the property he purchased after his father’s parish, “Woodrising”, at county Norfolk, England. Woodrising is now part of the Devonport Golf Club which was established on the property in 1954.

After Roberts’ death in 1895 the chapel was used for public services. In 1913 the chapel was moved to a site near the Spreyton railway station where it became All Saints’ Anglican church. Roberts was buried next to his chapel but his body was later reinterred at Don Congregational Cemetery.

While Reverend Claude Roberts is no longer a familiar name, his legacy remains. After Roberts settled at Woodrising he became minister at St. Luke's, Latrobe. After a year he resigned due to poor health. Roberts campaigned for the establishment of a hospital at Latrobe and he was instrumental in the founding of the Devon Cottage Hospital in 1888. This later became the Devon Public Hospital which merged with the Meercroft Hospital to become the Mersey General Hospital in 1958. Roberts was closely identified with the hospital up until the time of his death, holding the position of honorary manager and chairman of the board of governors. Another legacy of Claude and Helen Roberts was the Tasmanian dynasty they established through the 13 children they produced.

         Woodrising Private Chapel - later removed to become All Saints' Anglican Church (my photo)

                                      Reverend Roberts' headstone at Don Congregational Cemetery.
                                              Photo credit: Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier

                                 Woodrising House, which became the Devonport Golf Club 'clubhouse'.
                                                 Source:  Devonport County Club - artist not indicated.

                                 Reverend Claude Roberts - Source: The Advocate Weekender 1991


                             The Devon Cottage Hospital - Source: The Advocate Weekender 1991




    Devon Public Hospital - originally the Devon Cottage Hospital founded as a result of a campaign led by  
                              Reverend Claude Roberts - Postcard: Libraries Tasmania (undated)



Sources:

Launceston Examiner, Tuesday 26 February 1895, page 7
North West Post, Thursday 13 March 1913, page 2

https://www.devonportcountryclub.com.au/post/a-little-history
http://www.tfhsdev.com/TCC/people/roberts.html
https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/tas/biogs/TE00961b.htm




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. 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