No. 1087 - Westbury - St Andrew's Sunday School Room (1895)

-

This entry is the second in a series of articles concerning buildings associated with some of Tasmania’s most significant churches. These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and are rarely featured in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of some of the most significant of these buildings, including some which no longer exist.

Westbury’s Anglican church opened in 1842 and is one of the oldest churches in Tasmania. St Andrew’s Sunday school was established in 1865 and the present Sunday school room was opened by Bishop Montgomery on 4 September 1895. The following report, published in the Daily Telegraph, contains details about the functioning of the Sunday school and its design:

“The opening of this school took place on Wednesday evening, His Lordship the Bishop of Tasmania performing the opening ceremony. Prior to the opening a short evensong was held in the church,…This was followed by a parochial tea, held in the new school-room. The Bishop engaged in prayer, and then the hall open amidst applause. 

The room is 60ft x 25ft, weatherboard throughout, roofed with corrugated iron. A | nice porch— site 9ft x 6ft — is placed in front of the main door. There are seven windows giving ample light for all purposes required is the day time. The inside is lined with pine throughout and varnished, and this gives the room a very neat appearance, and reflects great credit on the contractors, Messrs. Roe and Mayhead. 

The platform is placed so that it can be removed if required. The cost of the hall, including furniture, lamps, book case, etc., will be about £209, and most of the money has been collected. There will be a debt of about £60, which the committee hopes to clear -off at an early date, The seats, which are of pine were made by Mr J. Jordan, of Westbury, and are very comfortable.

After the tea a social gathering was held,… The Rev. F. B. Sharland presided, and said that it was a very important day for the congregation of St. Andrew's. The foundation stone was practically laid about six years ago; the ladies had worked hard to build the hall, and had raised a sum of about £170. He spoke highly of the services of Mr C. W. Allen in connection with the school, and a word of praise was due to Messrs. Roe and Mayhead, who faithfully carried out their work… His Lordship then addressed the audience, and said he was pleased to be among them, The room they had built would be very useful, not only as a Sunday-school, but for holding meetings of various kinds, and, as Westbury was the headquarters of the rural deanery, it would be used for holding the meetings. He spoke to the Sunday-school children, and gave them some good advice, which he hoped they would remember them in after life…”.



St Andrew's Sunday School Room


St Andrew's Anglican Church 


Sources:

Daily Telegraph, Saturday 7 September 1895, page 8
The Mercury, Saturday 7 March 1936, page 9

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