Sadly Sylvia passed away on September 23rd 2013. She was a member of “St. George Historical Society” but because of her address at Niagara Park, she was unable to attend our meetings at Rockdale and “Lydham Hall”, but looked forward to receiving our Journals.
Arriving from England in 1950, aged 16, she became a loyal friend to people whom she met from that time. An avid reader and profuse letter writer, she kept close contact with her 5 children and grandchildren by this method and by welcome visits.
Known to fellow travellers as “The Lady in the Hat”, her large straw hats protected her red hair and English complexion from our Australian sun.
She will be extremely missed by all who loved her and those, lucky enough to have enjoyed her friendship.
This article was first published in the June 2013 edition of our magazine.
The Bexley Uniting (formerly Methodist) Church stands on a generous block of land in tree-lined Gladstone Street, surrounded in the main by Home Units and villas where once comfortable homes existed. Its large expanse of lawn reminds one of how things used to be. At night its illuminated front stained glass window draws attention to its presence. This church building is the place of worship for 60 men, women and children under the leadership of Rev Manas Ghosh, a Congregation which is 99 years old.
Bexley Uniting Church (courtesy Bayside Library)
When this Congregation was commenced by the Rockdale Methodist Church for its ‘Bexley Members’ in 1902 there was no church building of any kind. Use was made of the Bexley Municipal Council Chambers, now Jack and Jill Pre-School, Queen Victoria Street for its Sunday Worship and for Sunday School. Clearly this was a temporary measure. It was soon agreed that a church was required. At the first meeting of the newly formed Bexley Methodist Trust at which Mr. Henry Barringham was elected Secretary and Mr. Swithin Berry, Treasurer, it was reported that an anonymous gift of £100 had been received for the Bexley Church Building Fund. This was followed by several other generous gifts.
Early in 1903, a loan was negotiated to cover the cost of 2 blocks of land with a 66 foot frontage in Gladstone St. almost opposite the Rockdale College, later the Bexley Ladies College, and in June of the same year the Trust, having considered stone, weather-board and brick, agreed to erect a rectangular brick church, 34ft by 24ft with a small pore, centre front. It had a picket fence and double gates. Worship was conducted at 11:00am and 7:00pm and Sunday School was held at 3:00pm. The first Service in the church was held on July 3rd 1904.
Rev. H. L. Redman
In a relatively short time, 1908, the Congregation had developed healthy growing pains and the Trust discussed the merits of extending or widening the church After advice and serious deliberations it was agreed that a new and larger church was required. This led to the extension of the present land by a further two adjacent blocks providing an admirable site with a 132ft frontage and 200 ft depth. A New Church Fund was established immediately but its balance was small in those early years.
A. Lanyon Clark
Late in 1924, the Congregation elected a committee consisting of “…Rev. H. L. Redman, Superintendent of the Arncliffe / Bexley / West Bexley Circuit, Messrs W. H. Dunsmore, T. A. Johnston, A. H. Frazer, E. Ashley and C. Laverty… empowered to secure plans and estimate of costs of a new church building.” The Minister and Secretary “waited upon Mr. A. Lanyon Clark, Architect for the costings” and the committee and Trust were encouraged to pursue the matter.
Planning The New Church
The year 1925 was a very busy year for the Trust. Nine Meetings were held instead of the usual one to three. Most of the time and energy were spent planning the new church, although normal business did not suffer. Subscription lists were immediately opened and donations solicited. The volunteer collectors, Rev. Herbert Redman, Mr. T.A. Johnston, Mrs. Emma Martin and Mrs. Mary Neale did a splendid job, raising £500 to be added to the £200 already in the Bank. “In addition… 5 persons had each promised £5/5/- per year towards the funds.”
A loan of £500 was obtained from the Bright Bequest Fund and an overdraft of £1,500 was secured at the Commercial Bank. This encouraged the Congregation and Trustees to consider favourably a building cost of about £2,500 and Mr. A. Lanyon Clark was unanimously appointed Architect for the new building. His plans were modeled on the Methodist Church he had recently designed for Macksville, though different in a number of respects; e.g. Bexley has no tower. However, in a report in `The Methodist’ it spoke of Bexley’s diagonal door “which it is proposed some day to extend skywards in the form of a tower.” (3/10/1925). Mr. Clark’s plan was accepted by the Trust, with several modifications. The cross-aisle was removed, for example, and the centre aisle was replaced by 2 side aisles. and the Front Window Tracings were in cement and not wood. These changes increased the quotation of Parkinson Bros, Hurstville, by £32 to £2,569, £50 was allowed in this price for electric lighting! A brick front fence with single and double gates was also included in the quotation. Fred Parkinson, the senior partner, was very active in the Hurstville Methodist Church. However it was his lowest quotation which won him the contract!
The Building Committee, together with the Minister, architect and contractor, decided that “… the new church building should be built on a front line with the old church and 12ft from the fence on the Northern side.”
Work Begins
Rev. H. Wheen
The two Foundation Stones were laid by Rev. Harold Wheen, President of the New South Wales Conference and Mr. T. A. Johnston, Secretary of the Bexley Trust, on 3rd October 1925. Children were delightfully included. “… three little boys and three little girls were called from the gathering to assist and each child gently tapped the stones declaring them to be well and truly laid.”
“Beautiful silver trowels, suitably inscribed, were presented by Rev. H. L. Redman to Rev. Harold Wheen and T. A. Johnston.”
The face bricks selected for the church at the Carlton Brick Yards were found not to be of uniform quality and so bricks at the Austral Brick Co., St. Peters, were inspected and accepted. The contractor declared that, if the St. Peters bricks were used, he was not prepared to pay the extra charge for carting, amounting to £11 and asked that the Trustees bear the expense. He was wasting his breath! The Trust “… left the matter in the hands of the architect, Mr. Clark, promising to see that the Austral Bricks were used and that the contractor paid for the extra carting charges.”
The architect, too, had a minor `run-in’ with the Trust. He asked that “… an expert acoustician be employed at a fee of £5/5/- to test the new church for tonal and sounding purposes.”
After considerable discussion, it was felt that this was a matter for the architect himself to deal with and bear the necessary expense “… as they looked to him, to have erected and handed over to them, as their architect, a church that would be free from echoes or overtones.”
Bexley Uniting Church (courtesy Bayside Library)
Rev. H. E. Andrews
The delays were only slight and the church of simple beauty and intimacy, seating 265 persons, was dedicated on Saturday, 13th February 1926, by the Circuit Supt. Minister, Rev. H. L. Redman, and the ‘most inspiring Dedicatory Sermon’ was preached by Rev. H. E. Andrews, Chairman of 2nd Sydney District. Rev. H. L. Redman was asked to perform the Official Opening “… in recognition of the most valuable services he has rendered in forwarding the new church scheme.”
He was presented with a suitably inscribed silver Souvenir Key, by the Secretary of the Trust, Mr. T. A. Johnston “… in the presence of the largest gathering ever seen in the Circuit.”
The Program for the Official Opening indicated that the new Church “… commanded a lovely view of the historic Botany Bay.”
Rev. G. Martin
M. & J. Napper
At the Dedication of the new church a number of memorials were unveiled in “an impressive and inspiring ceremony”; a beautiful polished maple Pulpit, the gift of Mr. & Mrs. T. A. Johnston and Miss. Gladys Johnston in memory of the soldiers who fell in the Great War; a Pulpit Chair given by Mrs. E. W. Laverty MBE in memory of Rev Robert M. Laverty, “an outstanding preacher and great Scholar”, who retired to Bexley and died in 1914; a choice Baptismal Font (now in storage because of weakness), the gift of the Kindergarten School in memory of Alicia Nelson, a 4 year old S.S. pupil who died in 1925 ; two beautiful stained glass windows facing Gladstone Street “The Sower“, in memory of Rev. George Martin (d 1905), a former President of the NSW Conference and Editor of `The Methodist” given by his widow, Emma Martin, who herself was memorialised 5 years later by the centre window and “The Light of the World“, the gift of Mrs. Mary Ann Napper and family in memory of Mr. James Napper (d 1919), a lay preacher, a Trustee, an inaugural Circuit Steward of the Arncliffe-Bexley Circuit and a highly respected Rockdale businessman. The stained glass artist in both cases was Alfred C. Handel who created seven additional windows in this church before his untimely death in 1946. The Congregation has been blessed that in the 75 years since the Dedication of this building and its 75th Anniversary, all its sanctuary windows have been completed, the most recent two by Mr. Philip Handel, Alfred’s son; a gift from Mrs. Ethel Noble, one of the Church Members, now living in an Aged Care Centre.
Alfred Handel
This Anniversary Service captured people’s imagination, there being 200 in attendance. This number included large representations of the descendants of Rev. Herbert and Mrs. Alice Redman, including their son, Keith, now a retired Baptist Minister living in Queensland; of the Architect, A. Lanyon Clark, including his daughter Kathleen Steele and son, Thomas, now living in Melbourne; of the Napper family, including 6 grandsons and 2 granddaughters. Two lay members of the “Church Building Committee”, Enoch Ashley and Colin Laverty by 3 grandsons and a son and daughter respectively. Colin Laverty , at the time was at Medical School, Sydney University. He later became Medical Superintendent of St George Hospital. After his marriage to Dr Beryl Plummer he set up in private practice at the family home in Oriental Street, Bexley.
In the company of a large gathering and in the presence of God the members of the Bexley Uniting Church, on 11 February 2001, celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the Dedication of the 1926 church building, conscious of the heritage which is theirs, thankful for those who laboured in the Lord in days past, praising God for what has gone before and trusting Him for what lies ahead.
This article was first published in the April 2001 edition of our magazine.
An eminent English historian said that the most essential pieces of equipment for historians are a notebook and pencil and a stout pair of walking boots. Certainly this district has history in plenty for those prepared to go and look for it.
There has long been a useful human compulsion to celebrate the erection of public buildings by the setting of a ceremonial stone, sometimes at the commencement of building, sometimes on completion. This practice seems to be in a regrettable decline, but all is not lost. Australia has an abundance of politicians and many of them take pleasure in opening buildings of all kinds and in permitting their name to be included on a suitable commemorative plaque.
The position of a commemorative stone, the material from which it was made, the lettering and carving techniques employed and, finally, the information contained in the inscription itself, are all of use to the alert historian.
Be careful, however, in making assumptions based on too hasty a look at the evidence, Stones from original buildings were often incorporated in later ones without the fact being acknowledged. I draw your attention to the Anglican Church in Rockdale which has an embarrassing number of foundation stones bearing different dates.
At one time I took a class of high school boys on a series of walks in the area around the school. They faithfully recorded every plaque on local government amenities — parks, gardens, public toilets, library, senior citizens’ centres, etc. It was a demanding task, as each plaque bore the name of every alderman and a number of council officers.
Back in the classroom the boys compared lists and were able to draw up a list of probable dates of council elections. They noted the durability of some aldermen and the short tenure of others. They noted a period when the council was run by an administrator and took note of the fact that very few aldermen returned after the administrator stepped down. What happened, of course, was the suspension of the council by the state government and the failure of many aldermen to renominate because they were helping the police with their enquiries. These boys extracted a surprising amount of information from these plaques, enjoyed themselves enormously and, I believe, gained a great deal educationally.
St George Hospital, foundation stones, circa 1973 (courtesy Joan Hatton, Georges River Libraries Local Studies Collection)
Sometimes, when looking isn’t enough, you may find that in carefully recording the inscription you have saved it for posterity. Eighteen months ago I took a group of adults on an historic stroll around the St George Hospital area. They were interested in seeing a 19th century stone laid by a Mrs Holt (from a family of great local historical importance), they were stirred by the foundation stone of a Greek Church marking the alliance between Greece and Australia in World War II, they were charmed by a foundation stone, dated 1888, naming the Kogarah “Centennial” Congregational Church. All of these buildings have come down in the cause of development and the stones are ……!
Kogarah Congregational Church, Gray Street, circa 1915 (courtesy Georges River Libraries Local Studies Collection)
Sometimes a stone has some feature that takes the eye at once. Other features become interesting if you have a bit of special knowledge. If you glance at the list of inscriptions you will understand this point.
1. KING’S GROVE BAPTIST CHAPEL A.D. 1875
Stone 1 is reputedly the only existing example of the original spelling of ‘Kingsgrove”.
Kingsgrove Baptist Church (courtesy Bayside Library)
2. THIS STONE WAS LAID BY THE PRESIDENT BRO. J.H.S. MULHOLLAND 27th FEB. 1915.
The second stone is part of the Hurstville and District United Friendly Societies Pharmacy. This organisation merits a talk of its own, so we merely note the use of “Brother” as a form of address among members of friendly societies.
3. THIS FOUNDATION STONE WAS SET BY THE MOST REVEREND H.W.K. MOWLL, D.D. ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY AND PRIMATE OF AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA ON 23rd AUGUST 1952.
Stone 3, in Carlton, has what seems to us a quaint usage — “Australia and Tasmania”.
Archbishop Mowll laying the foundation stone of the new St James Church, 23 August 1952 (courtesy Bayside Library)
4. THIS SCHOOL OF ST MARY STAR OF THE SEA ERECTED AS A MEMORIAL TO ALL WHO DIED FROM THIS PARISH IN TWO WORLD WARS AND TO THE PIONEERS OF THE PARISH WAS SOLEMNLY BLESSED AND OPENED BY HIS EMINENCE NORMAN THOMAS CARDINAL GILROY ON SUNDAY AUG 16th, 1959 FATHER T.V. DUNLEA
Stone 4 contains the names of 2 distinguished clerics. Norman Gilroy, an altar boy in the Hurstville parish, served in the R.A.N. at Anzac Cove and became Australia’s first native-born cardinal.
5. THIS STONE AS LAID BY THE HON. T.J. LEY M.L.A. MINISTER FOR JUSTICE BEXLEY SCHOOL OF ARTS 15th NOV. 1924.
Stone 5 gives a new meaning to the word “Honourable”. T.J. Ley, local member and minister for Justice died in a hospital for the criminally insane, having been convicted of murder.
6. THIS STONE WAS SOLEMNLY BLESSED BY HIS EMINENCE NORMAN THOMAS CARDINAL GILROY, ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY ON SUNDAY 18th APRIL 1948
Stone 6 tells a lie. Cardinal Gilroy was called to Rome and the stone was blessed by Bishop Eris O’Brien.
Briefly, looking at foundation stones is fun; like many other activities, doing it is more fruitful than talking about it.
This article was first published in the November 1990 edition of our magazine.
