There is also an entry from the NSW Environment Dept looking at the Heritage value of this Church: (
visit link)
The Church had two architects, Edmund Blacket and John Horbury Hunt; who made it a prominent structure easily seen on river or road approach to Morpeth.
"The pipe organ, installed in 1877, is one of only a few surviving William Davidson organs in NSW. It has attracted considerable interest from the Organ Historical Trust of Australia."
From the Description in the Heritage document:
"The church is a modestly-sized stone-built building executed in what has been described as an Old Colonial Gothic Picturesque style. (Heritas Heritage and Conservation, St. James' Anglican Church Morpeth CMP, 2014) The building was completed in three stages: the first, for which Edward Charles Close is thought to have been responsible, was completed in 1840; the second, built in 1862, was designed by Edmund Blacket; the third, designed by John Horbury Hunt, was constructed in 1875. The siting of the building at the crest of the ridge running east-west to the south of the Hunter River renders it visible across a wide area on both sides of the waterway, and assists in defining it as a structure both geographically prominent and physically substantial. The unfenced grounds, which are used for parish and community functions, are characterised by sweeping lawns and mature trees.
"The sandstone building presents a simple form of a gabled nave with a chancel in the east and a square tower in the west. The chancel has a vestry on the southern side. The tower, the oldest element of the church, is visible across a wide area, and displays less detail, with simple lancet (pointed arch) windows to the first two levels, and a small roundel window to the third and highest level. The tower castellations conceal a steeply-pitched roof, from which district views are available. The lowest two levels of the tower are supported by undecorated stone buttresses. The lancet windows are simply highlighted with stone hood moulds, and the small wheel windows to the upper tower are encircled with stone mouldings. Two stone string courses add a simple horizontal detail to the upper tower, and highlight the roundel windows. The main entry door is a large timber door set into a pointed segmental arch opening, also with a hood mould. The nave, and smaller projecting eastern chancel, are more decorative in their detail, while keeping the same character as the tower. The nave is broken into four bays by simple stone buttresses. Each of the western three bays displays a double lancet window and a rudimentary plate tracery motif of a small circular piercing above. The eastern bay, which coincides with the original location of the organ and choir stalls, has a triple lancet window on each side, with a quatrefoil window above. The lancet windows at each location are positioned under an equilateral pointed stone arch, with simple hood mould complete with a cube form label stop. (Heritas Architecture CMP 2014, pp.14-16)
"The parapeted gable roof, covered in compressed fibrous cement shingles, has small gabled roof vents - one for each bay - near the ridge line. The eastern parapet is topped with a cross finial, and the skew stones of the parapet are detailed with a trefoil carving. The chancel continues the parapeted gable form of the nave, with cross finial and skew stones, however the eastern end is where the Gothic decoration of the exterior is most notable. The large stained glass window sits within an elaborate stone tracery frame housing five windows at its base, surmounted by a carved rose window motif and incorporating numerous modulated trefoil and several sexfoil motifs (six leaves radiating from a common centre). The large window is framed over the top with a hood mould, but here has carved label stops. (CMP 2014, pp.14-16)
"The small vestry to the southern side sits snugly in the internal corner junction of the nave and chancel. The repetitive detail of buttressing, parapeted gable, cross finial and carved skew stones on the small size of the vestry form make this section of the church appear elaborately detailed. The pointed arch entry with hood mould and carved label stops sits below a small equilateral arched window in the gable. An elaborate window on the eastern side of the vestry is of stone tracery within a segmental arch opening. A strong hood mould with carved label stops highlights the opening. The two window bays are carved in an ogee arch form with a trefoil head. (CMP 2014, pp.14-16) While the source of the sandstone is unknown, that used in the original building at least may have come from a nearby quarry, one known to have supplied good quality stone for several local structures. It is quite possible that the stone employed in the subsequent stages, if not for the initial element, may have been cut at Ravensfield near Farley. Stone from this quarry was used to build Aberglassyn House in the 1840s. (Cynthia Hunter, Hearths and Homes: 19 Decades of Residential Design, 2008, p.87) In his 1915 survey of building and ornamental stones, R.T. Baker, curator at the Sydney Technological Museum, described the Ravensfield sandstone as 'amongst the best in the State', being excellent for carving purposes. (R.T. Baker, Building and Ornamental Stones of Australia, 1915, p.125)
"The stone is a fine ashlar block, sparrow pecked with a margin, much more distinct and refined on Blacket's 1862 sections than on Hunt's 1875 nave or the 1840 tower. Despite this, close observation of the detail in the 1840 tower and the 1862 chancel and vestry brings new understanding to the detail that Hunt employed in his 1875 redesigning of the nave, skillfully merging the two styles displayed on either end of the structure to produce a homogeneous whole. (CMP 2014, pp.14-16)"
Address: 19 Tank Street, Morpeth, NSW, 2321
Visited: 31 January, 2016