The history of the Hamilton Church
The parish had its beginnings in the mid-19th century when the Revd. Francis Thomas Cusack Russell, an Irish-born clergyman, pioneered an Anglican presence in the far west of Victoria. He ministered at Hamilton from 1851-1855 as a deacon (for obscure reasons, he wasn’t ordained to the priesthood until 1866), holding services in a local hotel, the court house and a wool store. The earlier date of 1851 is generally regarded as the foundation of the Parish of Hamilton, although the first resident Incumbent, the Reverend Duncan McKenzie, wasn’t officially appointed to Hamilton by the Bishop of Melbourne until 1855. In January the following year, he was succeeded by the Reverend Thomas Herron not long after the first church building had been opened by Cusack Russell. This church, for some reason long forgotten, was dedicated to St. Botolph, a seventh century English saint, to whom 64 ancient churches were dedicated. The final cost of the building was £1700.
At this stage, the whole of Victoria, still known as the Port Phillip District, was part of the Diocese of Melbourne, founded in 1847. The Diocese of Ballarat did not come into existence until 1875. Only two years after the Diocese of Ballarat was consecrated, St. Botolph’s church was demolished, having been built with inferior local stone obtained from the Grange Creek, near the Portland Road. It had survived for only 21 years. The new Bishop, Dr. Samuel Thornton, with typical Episcopal tact, later described St. Botolph’s as a building with “slender claims to either strength or beauty”. In other words, it was poorly constructed and an eyesore!
On the same site, work began on a grand new church, for which a tender of £5600 by Mr. T. Fairbairn of Belfast (Port Fairy) had been accepted. The church was designed by the eminent Ballarat architect Henry Caselli, who had already made a name for himself by designing Holy Trinity Church, Sebastopol in 1867, and the Alfred Hall, built to mark the visit to Ballarat in December 1867 of HRH., Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria.
At this time, the parish was in the temporary care of Theodore Carlos Benoni Stretch, Archdeacon of Geelong from 1854, and a key figure in the early history of the Diocese of Ballarat. It was Archdeacon Stretch, later Dean of Ballarat, and then Co-adjutor Bishop of Brisbane, who arranged preliminary details of plans and tenders for the new church, before the appointment of the locum tenens, the Reverend Julius Stone, in 1876.
The foundation stone was laid by Bishop Thornton on 29th November, 1876. Unfortunately, its whereabouts are unknown. However, it is recorded that a scroll, another document, and contemporary gold, silver and copper coins, and copies of the Hamilton ‘Spectator’ (still published) and the Melbourne ‘Argus’ (now defunct) were placed in a special receptacle in the foundation stone. The document read: “This building is to be erected from funds subscribed by members of the Church of England and others in this neighbourhood for the worship of Almighty God at Hamilton, upon the site of the old Church, which being found inadequate for the requirements of the parishioners, has been removed to make room for the construction of a new and larger edifice more fitted for the Lord’s service.
Designed by Henry R. Casselli, architect, Ballarat; Thomas Fairbairn, Belfast, contractor; the Rev. Julius Lewis, Incumbent”.
The wording on the scroll was:
On the twenty-ninth day of November In the year of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy six,
And in the Reign of Her Majesty, Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Knight, G.C.M.G., being Governor of the Colony of Victoria,
The Foundation Stone of this Church, Dedicated to Christ our Saviour, Was laid by The Right Reverend Samuel Thornton, D.D., First Bishop of Ballarat.
Trustees: Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh Richard Garton Charles James Creswell Lindsay Clarke Robert Stapleton Bree
Guardians: Lindsay Clarke George Harriott John Thomas Kennedy.
During the building of the new church, services were held in what was then the Town Hall, in Gray Street, near the present Post Office. The new church was dedicated and opened for worship on a wet Sunday morning, 18th August 1878, by Bishop Thornton, in the presence of the Bishop of Melbourne, the Right Rev. James Moorhouse. That evening, the Reverend G. A. C. Innes was inducted as Vicar of the parish. As first Archdeacon of Hamilton, he was to die tragically of diphtheria on 9th April 1880, at the age of 42. It was not until 1899 that the debt owing on the church was finally paid off. The church was duly consecrated on 14th May, 1900, during the incumbency of Archdeacon R. J. E. Hayman (later Archdeacon of Geelong in the Melbourne diocese) by Bishop Thornton. It was one of his last official acts as Bishop of Ballarat. On 3rd January that year he had given notice of his intention to retire and return to England.
However, although the church had been consecrated, it still remained unfinished. The east end, including the chancel and a small vestry was a temporary structure of stained and varnished timber, with a large window in the gable. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the building, which had been constructed of local bluestone of excellent quality, “relieved”, according to a contemporary report, “with dressings of the magnificent freestone from Mount Sturgeon quarries” (30km east of Hamilton). More than half a century was to pass before the church was finally completed in 1957, to plans drawn up by the Diocesan architect, G. S. Richards, during the incumbency of the Rev. V. J. Julien. This final stage of the construction of Christ Church, Hamilton, is marked by a memorial stone laid by the fifth Bishop of Ballarat, the Right Reverend William Johnson, on 25th February, 1956. The new chancel, sanctuary, chapel and vestries are a memorial to “those who served and those who gave their lives in the wars of 1914-1919 and 1939-1945”.
The delay in completing the building begun in 1878 was brought about by a combination of reasons. The most obvious was the scarcity of money, especially at the time of the Great Depression, but also the intervention of two world wars, and in particular, following the second World War, the difficulty in finding stone masons to do the work, and the government restrictions on the construction of non-residential buildings. Even so, the parish was not indolent during these times, and a fund set up for the completion of the east end of the church grew slowly but steadily, especially with contributions from the estate of the prominent layman, Abraham Greed. By the time of the centenary celebrations of the parish in 1951 this fund had reached close to £8000.
Today Christ Church is a well-known landmark, “combining elegance with substantiality”, on “one of the best and most elevated sites” in Hamilton. The most striking external feature is the fine steeple, rising to a height of 134 feet (about 40m). Inside, the nave walls have been left, mercifully, unplastered (although not without some opposition early in the 20th century) in contrast to the cream-painted walls of the more recently built chancel. When the church was first opened, one critic mentioned that “the interior of the building is rather dark and … the effort to produce a ‘dim religious light’ has been rather overdone”. The first impression on entering the church even today is still one of darkness, yet the darkness is pierced by many points of light and colour from the stained glass windows, and the contrasting lightness of the chancel draws the eye to the principal internal feature of the church, the high altar and reredos. These, with the pulpit, were carved by the Prussian-born woodcarver Robert Wilhelm Prenzel (1866-1941) whose works have recently enjoyed a revival of interest. The altar and reredos were originally placed under a temporary window in the sanctuary of the unfinished church, before being relocated to their present position. A later, but unremarkable addition to Prenzel’s original reredos was intended to relieve the starkness of the plain wall, and to emphasise the height of the sanctuary. Unfortunately, a carved canopy at the top of this ‘new’ addition partly obscures a section of stained glass window. The original altar and reredos were dedicated at Easter 1925, the gift of Abraham Greed and his wife Hannah. The carved inscription, now partly obscured, reads:
To the Glory of God
In gratitude for the daily blessings bestowed
Upon them through the many years of their married life,
the altar and reredos are offered by
Abraham and Hannah Greed
Easter 1925
At the bottom right-hand corner of the altar, at floor level, is engraved “Robert Prenzel, South Yarra”. When the altar was moved in recent times to enable the celebrant to face the congregation (the westward position) as opposed to standing with his back to them (the eastward position), a further indication of Prenzel’s workmanship was discovered: the inscription: “Robt. Prenzel, Toorak Rd., Sth. Yarra. European Labour Only” stamped on the timber backing under the gradine which now supports a tabernacle and six candlesticks. Nearby, written by hand, is a more recent inscription: “Remodeld (sic) by an Australian”, probably dating from the mid-1950s. Prenzel, although naturalised as an Australian on 19th March 1897, was subject to the anti-German sentiments which peaked during the first World War, to the extent that his business was badly affected for a time.