No. 1156 - York Plains - Anglican Church

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York Plains is a rural community approximately 10 kilometres northwest of Oatlands. It was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1811 in honour of the Duke of York. It had previously been known as Scantling’s Plains, after the bushranger Richard Scantling. By the close of the nineteenth century the population of the York Plains district had grown considerably. In 1898 a State school opened and a public hall was built in about 1914. Anglican services were held in the York Plains Hall for many years.

Moves to build a church at York Plains began in 1935. ‘Church News’ reported that a church was to be built and that “people were donating three pence a brick”. In May 1938 an advertisement calling for tenders to build a new brick church at York Plains was placed in the Hobart Mercury. The proposed building was designed by architect Eric Round of Hobart. Round was the designer of several Tasmanian churches including All Saint’s at Margate and St Luke’s at Longley.

Further progress was reported in the Mercury in July 1939:

“About £400 has been raised in the York Plains district for the erection of an Anglican Church. Another £100 is needed to complete tho fund. A block of land near the York Plains Hall has been given by Mr. E. Barwick. Because of the travelling Involved to outlying districts, the rector of the Oatlands parish (the Rev. L. L. Oldham) proposes to make York Plains the centre for Lemont, Mount Pleasant and Woodbury. Work on the building ls expected to begin shortly”.

For reasons not known the construction of the church did not proceed and no further reports about the church appear.

Mercury (1938)



Sources:

Henslowe, Dorothea I. and Hurburgh, Isa. Our heritage of Anglican churches in Tasmania / by Dorothea I. Henslowe; sketches by Isa Hurburgh; 1978

Mercury, Wednesday 4 May 1938, page 10
Mercury, Saturday 15 July 1939, page 15

https://www.southernmidlands.tas.gov.au/towns-villages-areas-york-plains/



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