History

THE CHURCH – 1858

The church was consecrated and dedicated to the Holy Trinity by its designer, the Right Reverend Francis Russell Nixon, First Lord Bishop of Tasmania, on Wednesday 19th May 1858. Building of the church had commenced in April 1857, and one of the government-appointed Colonial Chaplains serving the district, the Reverend Robert Strong, A.B. conducted services in it by March 1858.

Notes: The Church: Barrett (1942, p. 15).

FIRST BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, MARRIAGE, & BURIAL

The first baptism recorded at the church was on 13th June 1858 of Charles James Allen, son of Charles Winnett and Mary Ann Allen. The officiant was the Reverend Robert Strong. The father, Mr Winnett, was store-keeper with the Cressy Company at Richmond Hill.

The first marriage recorded at the church was on 15th July 1858 between Charles Nichols and Mary Cowie. The officiant was the Reverend Robert Strong. After Charles died, Mary returned to her family in Ireland. In 1903 she sent out a sterling silver communion set as a memorial of her connection with Holy Trinity Church in Cressy.

The first confirmation in the church was by the Right Reverend Charles Henry Bromby, Second Lord Bishop of Tasmania, on 12th December 1865. The names of those confirmed are unknown.

The first burial service at Holy Trinity was for Alfred Anderson, of Richmond Hill, on 6th December 1858, aged 2 years and 3 months. He was the gardener’s son, and the Reverend William Dry, M.A. (brother of Sir Richard) performed the ceremony.

Notes: First Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, & Burial: The State Archives Office has digitised these records which are available online via Libraries Tasmania’s “Name Index”, and on microfilm in Launceston, Devonport, Burnie and Hobart public reference libraries.

THE BELL – 1798

The church bell was cast in London as a ship’s bell for the clipper the Sara Christina launched in 1798 in Rotherhithe, London. The ship was one of hundreds serving the East India Company on the China, India to England trade routes. The ship was broken up in 1828, and the bell was given to Captain Bartholomew Thomas, director of the Cressy Company (the New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land Establishment) and used at Cressy House. The bell was presented to Holy Trinity Church by Mr James Denton Toosey, where it hung in a gum tree in the church grounds and thus used until the belfry was built in 1894.

Notes: The Bell: The spelling of the vessel’s name is taken from the hand-written Lloyd’s of London’s ship registers of the period, which are consistent for this vessel across their legers. Other sources use variant spellings, including “Sarah” for Sara and “Christiana” for Christina. Thomas was one of the founders of the Cressy Company, and Toosey was a Director of the Cressy Company at the time he donated the bell to the church.

THE ORGAN – 1837

The church organ has one manual, a foot-pedal board of thirteen notes, five composition pedals, a hold-down swell pedal, and seven stops. The chamber organ was built by James Chapman Bishop, Mary-Le-Bone, London in 1836-1837. The company trades today as Bishop and Son Organ Builders. The polished mahogany casing is in Regency style. An identical instrument was built in 1828 for the Reverend Dr Philip Wynter, President of St John’s College, Oxford.

Joseph Archer (1795-1853) of ‘Panshanger’ in 1837 purchased a pipe organ from J. C. Bishop in London which was shipped the same year to Van Diemen’s Land. Mr William Henry Davis (Harry) Archer gave the organ to the church in 1894, and it was installed in the church in April 1896. The organ was first used in Divine Service on Sunday 10th May 1896. An electric blower was added in 1956. In the early 1980s Mr Lindsay Johnstone of Hobart restored the instrument.

Notes: The Organ: Clark & Johnson (2002, chapter 46) record “[Archer] purchased an organ for his home ‘Panshanger’ in 1837 according to the manuscript list of organs at the firm of Bishop, London, although no record appears in the estimate book”. The donation is recorded by von Stieglitz (1958) and the 1894 The Examiner newspaper report of the day.

MEMORIALS

Notes: Memorials: The Nichols’ donation appears not to have been inscribed to self-identify, so is not in the table. The two stained-glass windows of St Alban and St Simeon were both manufactured in Melbourne by Brooks, Robinson & Co.

CURRENT & FORMER PLACES OF WORSHIP IN THE PARISH

Cressy Road Church (1838)

Church of the Holy Nativity, Bishopsbourne (1844)

Christ College Chapel, Bishopsbourne (1846)

St James’ Chapel, Darlington Park (1850)

Holy Trinity Church, Cressy (1858)

Saundridge Memorial Chapel (1862)

St Mark’s Church, Lake River, Pisa (1865)

St Mary Magdalene, Liffey (1918)

St James the Apostle, Bracknell (1932)†

Poatina Chapel (1959)

Blackwood Creek

Caseyville

Powranna

† Indicated memorials from Bracknell were re-located to Holy Trinity Church in Cressy when St James the Apostle Church closed.

Notes: Current & former places of worship in the parish: Primary source verification shows dates given in some secondary sources vary from the fact, Pisa being a case in point. Dates for churches here refer to first use, not necessarily the same as the date of building or consecration unless so indicated.

MISSION PARTNERS

The parish has supported a variety of missionary organisations and charities over the years. Currently, the parish partners with:

The Helping Hand Association in Longford (a regional Emergency Relief organisation to care for singles and families requiring emergency relief),

Bush Church Aid,

the Australian Christian Lobby, and

the Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC).

We support Vision Christian Radio 88.0FM Cressy.

Cressy Parish works with the Child Evangelism Fellowship ministry offering holiday programs to primary school children.

Notes: Mission Partners: this list is decided by parishioners on an annual basis and changes over time. Cressy was an early supporter of the Church of England’s Australasian Board of Missions, now named Anglican Board of Mission Australia (ABM). In August 1981 the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania changed its name to the Anglican Church of Australia. (Tasmania remains an extra-provincial diocese.)

TIMELINE

1830 The Cressy district was included as part of the Chaplaincy of Norfolk Plains, which was headquartered in Latour (re-named Longford in 1833). The Reverend Rowland Robert Davies, B.A. appointed Chaplain by the government.

Notes: Barrett (1942, p. 3). Some sources, e.g. the Australian Dictionary of Biography, invert his Christian names, viz. Robert Rowland Davies. The version of his name as described in his baptismal record (born 15th September 1805, and baptised in Canterbury, Kent, England, 24th August 1807) is used here.

1838 Church of England chapel (Cressy Road Church) – first church built in the Cressy district, at the Bell Post Corner, Cressy Road, on the southern outskirts of Cressy, near the Woodburn Lane junction. It was built in 1838 by John and Oliva Hodgetts and other concerned citizens on land leased to the Hodgetts by Robert Brumby. It was officially opened by the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Franklin on 16th March 1839. No longer standing. A memorial cairn marks the site.

Notes: Parish records, Hodgetts family tree notes. The fuller parish record account of the opening reads: “Was officially opened in 1839. When Sir John and Lady Franklin came in 1839 to lay the foundation stone of Christ Church in Longford, he also paid a visit to Cressy for the opening of the chapel here. They had ridden over to the bell post from Woolmers where they were staying with a military escort for the occasion.”

1848 Cressy became an official township.

1857-8 Holy Trinity Church built on land gifted by Mr J. D. Toosey on the corner of Main Street and Saundridge Road in Cressy.

Notes: Barrett (1942, p. 15). The land on which Holy Trinity Church is built had been in the hands of the Cressy Company, of which Toosey was a Director.

1862 The Parish of Cressy created as a separate parish; first Rector – the Reverend James Marsh Norman (Curate, 1852-1862; Rector 1862-1900).

Notes: Barrett (1942, p. 57) taken from diocesan records. Norman’s details from the contemporary diocesan yearbook record.

1894 Major building extension and renovations, designed by architect Alexander North of Launceston. North executed the project in collaboration with his partner William Dunning. Hexagonal belfry added. Orientation of interior reversed: west end removed, a new chancel and sanctuary were added; east end which had housed the sanctuary became the entrance. New prayer desk designed by Mr. North. The church was closed for the re-building work for four months and re-opened on Wednesday 1st August by the Right Reverend Henry Hutchinson Montgomery, Fourth Lord Bishop of Tasmania.

Notes: The names of the architectural firm vary according to which source one reads. Corrie had transferred to Queensland to work the year before. North was the senior partner in the firm at the time of the Cressy project. Dunning was in training under North and had assumed the role of junior partner in North’s firm on Corrie’s departure. Findlay (2004) follows Henslowe (1979) in arguing for a collaboration on the project between the two.

1895 Baptismal font in nave designed by North & Dunning, made and carved by Sylvanus Wilmot of Launceston using limestone quarried in New Zealand from Mount Somers and Oamaru.

Notes: Field research on stonemason Sylvanus Wilmot’s work by Mary Chapman, Landscape Architect with the City of Melbourne.

1904 Period of St Wilfrid’s Theological College at Richmond Hill, Cressy. Rectors of Cressy were also Wardens of the College during this period. In 1930 St Wilfrid’s merged with the newly re-established Christ College in Hobart.

Notes: Barrett (1942, pp. 32, 56-57, 66-67, 80-81) writes in some detail of St Wilfrid’s. Barrett was both Warden of the College and Rector of Cressy, 1924-1929.

2017 The Outdoor Chapel in the church grounds, adjacent to the entrance to the church building, was dedicated for use, in memory of Mrs Marjorie Green, former organist and parish treasurer. The sanctuary stone was provided by the Bayles family from ‘Mount Joy’ and the timber for the very tall sanctuary cross was provided by sisters Elizabeth Clark and Susan Hogarth of ‘Creekside’, built by Mr Jason Cox. The bell was cast by John Danks & Son and had been the church bell of St James the Apostle Church at Bracknell prior to that church’s closure.

INCUMBENTS OF THE PARISH

Rectors and Priests-in-Charge

1862 – 1900 The Reverend James M. Norman
1902 The Reverend Robert W. P. Montgomery
1904 – 1908 The Reverend Canon R. C. Nugent Kelly, M.A.
1908 – 1921 The Reverend Canon Herbert R. Finnis, Th.Schol.
1921 – 1924 The Reverend Donald B. Blackwood, M.C., V.D., M.A., Th.Schol.
1924 – 1929 The Reverend William R. Barrett, B.A., Th.L.
1930 – 1933 The Reverend Fernley J. Denbow
1933 – 1941 The Reverend Zenas A. Higgins
1941 – 1946 The Reverend Oscar L. Davis
1946 – 1951 The Reverend M. A. Frank Downie, Th.L.
1951 – 1959 The Reverend Trevor E. Doyle
1959 – 1964 The Reverend Lionel B. Browning, Th.L.
1965 – 1966 The Reverend Kenneth N. Reardon, Th.L., B.A.
1966 – 1968 The Reverend Kenneth B. Skegg, Th.L., B.A.
1968 – 1972 The Reverend K. W. (Bill) Percy, Th.L., G.Cert.Lead.Mgt.
1973 – 1979 The Reverend Harold H. Butler, Th.L.
1981 – 1982 The Reverend Canon Brian Horwood
1983 – 1986 The Reverend Craig T. Ellis, B.A., B.S.W.(Hons), Cert.E.F.M.
1986 – 1989 The Reverend Christopher J. Archer, Th.Dip.
1990 – 1995 The Reverend Robert L. Graue, Dip.Min.
1995 – 1998 The Reverend Charles J. Whitton, B.S.W., B.Theol.
1998 – 2004 The Reverend Andrew J. Lang, B.Sc.(Hons), Grad.Dip.Prof.Mngt., Dip.Bib.Stud., Dip.Th., B.D., Grad.Cert.Min.
2006 – 2019 The Reverend Alan D. Bulmer, OAM, Th.Dip.
2020 – 2024 The Reverend J. (Dub) Gannon, B.Comm., B.App.Sc., B.Th. (Acting)

During interregna, various ministers assisted or were locum tenentes. Six such were:

1901 Rev’d William H. Murray

1903 Rev’d Canon Robert J. De Coetlogon

1989-90 Rev’d Brian A. Rayner, Th.L.

2005 Rev’d Kelvin R. Viney, Th.L.

2024-5 Rev'd J. L. (Laurie) Skilton, Dip.Th., M.A.

Notes: Incumbents of the Parish: dates, spellings and post-nominals were verified against official diocesan records. Canon De Coetlogon and Mr. Gannon were never licensed to or formally given the cure of the parish.