No. 1594 - Ilfracombe - Anglican Church (1873)
Ilfracombe is the name of a rural settlement which was renamed Beauty Point in 1939. Ilfracombe was located on the west bank of the River Tamar approximately 6 kilometres north of Beaconsfield. Two small settlements, Port Lempriere and Leonardsburgh, which were associated with iron mining and smelting, fell within the district known as Ilfracombe.
While there is no longer an Anglican church at Beauty Point, there have been two Anglican churches established in the area. The second, more recent church, known as St Mark’s Anglican Hall, closed in the 1940s. [See No. 625] This was preceded by a church closely associated with Mr. John Effingham Lawrence of Point Effingham, a property in the vicinity of Bell Bay on the opposite bank of the River Tamar.
John Lawrence (1828-1874) was the son of William Effingham Lawrence and Mary Ann [Milligan], one of the largest landholders in the colony. In 1855 John married Frances Gaunt at Trinity Church in Launceston. He resided at a “comfortable residence with stables” and a “coach-house” at Point Effingham. In 1868 Lawrence obtained a license to establish an oyster bed on the Tamar River and also owned the Tamar Salt Works. He was a Trustee on the George Town Roads Board. Lawrence may have had business interests in the Ilfracombe district.
The discovery of iron ore at Ilfracombe in the mid 1860s resulted in the establishment of an iron mining and smelting operation by the British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company. The company's operations included an iron ore mine near Anderson's Creek and a railway from the mine to a blast furnace and port near Redbill Point—now part of modern-day Beauty Point. The blast furnace was the largest in Australia at the time and produced pig-iron from June 1876 to August 1877. However, the venture failed mainly because the high chromium content of the ore which produced pig-iron of an unsaleable quality. There is very little remaining of the mining and smelting operation. The two company’s settlements, Port Lempriere (the port township and the site of the blast furnace) and Leonardsborough (near the mine site), no longer exist.
The increase in population in the Ilfracombe district as a consequence of mining activity was accompanied by an increase in religious activity. In December 1872 the Christian Brethren attempted to establish a church at Leonardsburgh but this was not successful. The Launceston Examiner reported:
“Another brother (William Brown)… desirous of doing the Lord’s well, started for the Leven on 27th December, but were led by the Lord, through a Christian brother, to call at Leonardsburgh (the iron mines on the Tamar), and the Lord blessed the word spoken by us to fifteen souls - twelve adults and three children….”.
Before the 1870s the Ilfracombe district was an undeveloped backwater with neither a church or school. In early 1873 the Cornwall Chronicle reported:
“Since October last, when the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company commenced their undertaking here, there has been gathering together a great number of small families amongst the employees of the company, and now there are some 110 children on the company's ground and the surrounding neighbourhood. Some of the company’s employees have lived in the neighbourhood 25 years, and disgraceful as it is, no school has ever been erected for the education of a district 15 miles in extent, although that district is within 35 miles of Christian church-going Launceston and only 5 miles from official George Town”.
Anglican services were periodically held in the Ilfracombe district from the 1850s. In April 1873 the Cornwall Chronicle reported that a small church had been built and opened:
“This is a large and thinly peopled district, included within the parish of George Town. As the iron-works, now in their infancy, extend their influence, a large population will no doubt be gathered together at various centres of industry: but in the meantime it is but right that the spiritual welfare of its inhabitants should be attended to, as far as is practicable; and therefore, for a twelve-month past, services have been occasionally held among them by the incumbent of George Town, and more frequently by Mr. John Lawrence, who resides on the banks of the Tamar, immediately opposite Ilfracombe.
These occasional services have had the good effect, under the providence of God, of arousing a desire throughout the district to secure constant ministrations amongst the inhabitants. A site was given, subscriptions asked for and obtained, for erecting a building, which might serve both as a church and a Sunday-school: and on the occasion of its being opened for public worship, which took place on Sunday afternoon, March 23, the incumbent inducted Mr Lawrence into the office of lay reader within the district of George Town, pursuant to a license granted by the Bishop of the diocese.
The building, which is far from finished, was filled with a most attentive congregation in the afternoon above-mentioned; some of the hymns heartily rendered, selected from “Hymns Ancient and Modern”; and after the Litany was ended, which, by the Bishop’s direction, formed the first part of the service, Mr Lawrence was formally appointed, after the accustomed manner, and the communion office was then proceeded with, in the course of which the incumbent preached a sermon in which thankful allusion was made to two events which distinguished the days proceedings.
On the dispersion of the great body of the congregation, twelve persons remained to partake of the Holy Communion. The service was followed by a baptism; so that, although no actual ceremony of consecration has been, or indeed can be performed, we may fairly hope that a building, in which these most solemn rites were transacted, in the very first day of its being used, is by their means, rightly dedicated to the service of Almighty God. Mr Lawrence will now officiate regularly every Sunday afternoon within its walls, and the incumbent will, if possible, hold a service in that part of his large district once every three months”.
The church seems never to have been dedicated or consecrated functioned for only two or three years. Its demise is linked to the failure of mining operations by the late 1870s and hastened by the untimely death of John Lawrence in July 1874. Lawrence’s death is mentioned in a brief report in the Cornwall Chronicle:
“Mr John Effingham Lawrence, of Point Effingham arrived here by the s.s. Pioneer from George Town for medical assistance. He was suffering from diptheria, which had progressed so far that medical skill failed to arrest it, and Mr Lawrence sank and died at the residence of Mr Richard Green on Monday night, and his remains were interred in the Church of England cemetery yesterday. Mr Lawrence has lived a very retired life at Point Effingham….”.
The church appears to have survived for at least a couple of years after Lawrence’s death. The last reference to it is made in November 1875 at a meeting of the Anglican Synod’s Finance Committee where “a memorial” was addressed to the Bishop by the residents at Port Lempriere, “expressing their wish that the district should not be separated from GeorgeTown”. This coincides with the establishment of an Anglican church at nearby Beaconsfield, which no doubt contributed to the closure of the church at Ilfracombe.
No image of Ilfracombe’s church exists and it was probably no more than a simple wooden building. The site of the church is not known and it does not appear on any maps from this period.
Sources:
Launceston Examiner, Saturday 31 August 1844, page 2
Launceston Examiner, Thursday 20 December 1855, page 2
The Mercury, Tuesday 3 November 1868, page 3
Launceston Examiner, Thursday 9 January 1873, page 1
Cornwall Chronicle, Wednesday 5 February 1873, page 3
Cornwall Chronicle, Friday 4 April 1873, page 3
Cornwall Chronicle, Wednesday 15 July 1874, page 2
The Tasmanian, Saturday 27 November 1875, page 4
Henslowe, Dorothea I and Hurburgh, Isa. Our heritage of Anglican churches in Tasmania / by Dorothea I. Henslowe ; sketches by Isa Hurburgh s.n [S.l. 1978
https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/I/Iron%20Mining.htm
While there is no longer an Anglican church at Beauty Point, there have been two Anglican churches established in the area. The second, more recent church, known as St Mark’s Anglican Hall, closed in the 1940s. [See No. 625] This was preceded by a church closely associated with Mr. John Effingham Lawrence of Point Effingham, a property in the vicinity of Bell Bay on the opposite bank of the River Tamar.
John Lawrence (1828-1874) was the son of William Effingham Lawrence and Mary Ann [Milligan], one of the largest landholders in the colony. In 1855 John married Frances Gaunt at Trinity Church in Launceston. He resided at a “comfortable residence with stables” and a “coach-house” at Point Effingham. In 1868 Lawrence obtained a license to establish an oyster bed on the Tamar River and also owned the Tamar Salt Works. He was a Trustee on the George Town Roads Board. Lawrence may have had business interests in the Ilfracombe district.
The discovery of iron ore at Ilfracombe in the mid 1860s resulted in the establishment of an iron mining and smelting operation by the British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company. The company's operations included an iron ore mine near Anderson's Creek and a railway from the mine to a blast furnace and port near Redbill Point—now part of modern-day Beauty Point. The blast furnace was the largest in Australia at the time and produced pig-iron from June 1876 to August 1877. However, the venture failed mainly because the high chromium content of the ore which produced pig-iron of an unsaleable quality. There is very little remaining of the mining and smelting operation. The two company’s settlements, Port Lempriere (the port township and the site of the blast furnace) and Leonardsborough (near the mine site), no longer exist.
The increase in population in the Ilfracombe district as a consequence of mining activity was accompanied by an increase in religious activity. In December 1872 the Christian Brethren attempted to establish a church at Leonardsburgh but this was not successful. The Launceston Examiner reported:
“Another brother (William Brown)… desirous of doing the Lord’s well, started for the Leven on 27th December, but were led by the Lord, through a Christian brother, to call at Leonardsburgh (the iron mines on the Tamar), and the Lord blessed the word spoken by us to fifteen souls - twelve adults and three children….”.
Before the 1870s the Ilfracombe district was an undeveloped backwater with neither a church or school. In early 1873 the Cornwall Chronicle reported:
“Since October last, when the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company commenced their undertaking here, there has been gathering together a great number of small families amongst the employees of the company, and now there are some 110 children on the company's ground and the surrounding neighbourhood. Some of the company’s employees have lived in the neighbourhood 25 years, and disgraceful as it is, no school has ever been erected for the education of a district 15 miles in extent, although that district is within 35 miles of Christian church-going Launceston and only 5 miles from official George Town”.
Anglican services were periodically held in the Ilfracombe district from the 1850s. In April 1873 the Cornwall Chronicle reported that a small church had been built and opened:
“This is a large and thinly peopled district, included within the parish of George Town. As the iron-works, now in their infancy, extend their influence, a large population will no doubt be gathered together at various centres of industry: but in the meantime it is but right that the spiritual welfare of its inhabitants should be attended to, as far as is practicable; and therefore, for a twelve-month past, services have been occasionally held among them by the incumbent of George Town, and more frequently by Mr. John Lawrence, who resides on the banks of the Tamar, immediately opposite Ilfracombe.
These occasional services have had the good effect, under the providence of God, of arousing a desire throughout the district to secure constant ministrations amongst the inhabitants. A site was given, subscriptions asked for and obtained, for erecting a building, which might serve both as a church and a Sunday-school: and on the occasion of its being opened for public worship, which took place on Sunday afternoon, March 23, the incumbent inducted Mr Lawrence into the office of lay reader within the district of George Town, pursuant to a license granted by the Bishop of the diocese.
The building, which is far from finished, was filled with a most attentive congregation in the afternoon above-mentioned; some of the hymns heartily rendered, selected from “Hymns Ancient and Modern”; and after the Litany was ended, which, by the Bishop’s direction, formed the first part of the service, Mr Lawrence was formally appointed, after the accustomed manner, and the communion office was then proceeded with, in the course of which the incumbent preached a sermon in which thankful allusion was made to two events which distinguished the days proceedings.
On the dispersion of the great body of the congregation, twelve persons remained to partake of the Holy Communion. The service was followed by a baptism; so that, although no actual ceremony of consecration has been, or indeed can be performed, we may fairly hope that a building, in which these most solemn rites were transacted, in the very first day of its being used, is by their means, rightly dedicated to the service of Almighty God. Mr Lawrence will now officiate regularly every Sunday afternoon within its walls, and the incumbent will, if possible, hold a service in that part of his large district once every three months”.
The church seems never to have been dedicated or consecrated functioned for only two or three years. Its demise is linked to the failure of mining operations by the late 1870s and hastened by the untimely death of John Lawrence in July 1874. Lawrence’s death is mentioned in a brief report in the Cornwall Chronicle:
“Mr John Effingham Lawrence, of Point Effingham arrived here by the s.s. Pioneer from George Town for medical assistance. He was suffering from diptheria, which had progressed so far that medical skill failed to arrest it, and Mr Lawrence sank and died at the residence of Mr Richard Green on Monday night, and his remains were interred in the Church of England cemetery yesterday. Mr Lawrence has lived a very retired life at Point Effingham….”.
The church appears to have survived for at least a couple of years after Lawrence’s death. The last reference to it is made in November 1875 at a meeting of the Anglican Synod’s Finance Committee where “a memorial” was addressed to the Bishop by the residents at Port Lempriere, “expressing their wish that the district should not be separated from GeorgeTown”. This coincides with the establishment of an Anglican church at nearby Beaconsfield, which no doubt contributed to the closure of the church at Ilfracombe.
No image of Ilfracombe’s church exists and it was probably no more than a simple wooden building. The site of the church is not known and it does not appear on any maps from this period.
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| Centre Street, Port Lempriere (now a part of Beauty Point), Tasmania (1875) with the British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company's blast furnace in the background. in the distance. Unknown artist / engraver. State Library of Victoria. This view was made in or before December 1875. Publishers Ebenezer and David Syme, Melbourne, 1875 |
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| Source: Arlène - findagrave.com - original source not provided |
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| Rare photographs of Port Lempriere - (State Library of Tasmania) The original high definition photographs can be viewed HERE |
Launceston Examiner, Saturday 31 August 1844, page 2
Launceston Examiner, Thursday 20 December 1855, page 2
The Mercury, Tuesday 3 November 1868, page 3
Launceston Examiner, Thursday 9 January 1873, page 1
Cornwall Chronicle, Wednesday 5 February 1873, page 3
Cornwall Chronicle, Friday 4 April 1873, page 3
Cornwall Chronicle, Wednesday 15 July 1874, page 2
The Tasmanian, Saturday 27 November 1875, page 4
Henslowe, Dorothea I and Hurburgh, Isa. Our heritage of Anglican churches in Tasmania / by Dorothea I. Henslowe ; sketches by Isa Hurburgh s.n [S.l. 1978
https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/I/Iron%20Mining.htm
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