The White Church and The Whispering Hot Wind.

As one drives down historic Windsor’s Macquarie Street, one cannot help but notice the grand white church on the corner of Fitzgerald Street. In fact the church is a part of the Windsor skyline and draws the viewer’s eyes to itself as soon as one approaches the town. Today as tourists and locals scurry around the Coles and Pizza Hut car parks, the Church and Wesley Hall just blend into the known landscape.

Each Sunday at about 9:20 am the bell in the spiring white tower springs to life as the now small band of faithful gather for worship. Further in George Street Mall where the Sunday markets are being held, it is only the visitors who notice the bell’s warm ring. As the hot summer nor-westerlies blow across Hawkesbury’s plains and shake the pencil pines planted along the church’s eastern side, there is a quiet whisper as the wind blows on her walls and neo-gothic spires.

The whispering wind tells of another time. A time when New South Wales was but a colony, gentlemen wore frock coats and top hats, ladies wore long frocks, and the Church was Wesleyan Methodist. The whispering wind hints at a time when she blew into Windsor, but with devastating and tragic consequences of her visit.

This is a story of a group of people, ordinary people, a people who worked hard and rebuilt not only their lives but also their community from the rubble and ashes. It is a story of a pioneering community who were accustomed to the hardship of colonial life. It is a story of a Methodist community of faith who had their fair share of building. The story really commences with a friendship. It was the friendship between the Colonial Chaplain, The Reverend Samuel Marsden, and the first Methodist minister of the colony, The Reverend Samuel Leigh. Marsden had a sizable land grant in Windsor, which he used for farming. When he [Marsden] met with Leigh, Marsden agreed to donate a small corner of this land holding to the Methodists for the purpose of building a chapel. The Methodists were active in the Windsor area since about 1812 with about six members enrolled in the Class Meeting. The land that Marsden generously donated would be the beginning of this story.

In 1820 the first church was opened on the corner of the Marsden farm. Locals raised some of the funds. However in 1816, an appeal was made to the Missionary Society in London for assistance to build the chapel. The foundation stone for the brick chapel was laid in 1818.

The community of Methodists thrived around their new chapel. The chapel was quickly filled for worship each Sunday, to the strains of "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing". The Methodist style of revival had hit the Hawkesbury Valley and the congregation thrived. Commissioner J.T. Bigge may have been critical of the colony’s Governor Lachlan Macquarie, however he praised the Windsor Wesleyan Sunday School, under the leadership of The Reverend Carvosso. Commenting: “That the attendance and management were very creditable to the conductor of it.’

So successful were the Methodist revivals that the thirty-two by sixteen feet chapel soon proved to be too small. So plans were made to build a new chapel. On the 17th October 1838, The Reverend W. Schofield laid the foundation stone for a chapel measuring, thirty by fifty feet. Steel writes that this chapel was capable of seating one hundred and fifty people. The new chapel was opened on 4th December 1839. Life for the Methodist congregation was going ahead in leaps and bounds. By 1861 the Wesleyan Methodist Church had not only established itself in Windsor, a hall was also built to accommodate the Wesleyan day school. The builder of this hall was one James Melville. Melville was a Scottish Presbyterian, however he was married to Mary (nee Gavin) who was a Methodist. It was said that James would often attend church with his wife; therefore, in Windsor the grounding for the Uniting Church was being laid way back in the 19th century. James Melville was a church builder of note in the area. He also built the Wilberforce Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church at Windsor.

The Reverend W.Schofield

James and Mary Melville. He was Presbyterian, and she was a Methodist Early foundations of the Uniting Church in Windsor back in the 19th Century

The 1839 Church, with the 1861 Wesley Hall, and parsonage, all facing onto Macquarie Street.

This photograph was taken some time prior to the Great Fire in 1874. Note the gentleman in the frock coat and top hat walking past the parsonage.

So life in Windsor was carried on some would say quietly. There were however the odd colourful characters which by nature would attract colourful events. These would even impact on the quiet Methodists. One such event involved the Rev F. Lewis. Lewis is described by Steele as a “Great temperance enthusiast a keen politician, and a Bowmanite.” In 1843 the windows of the church and the parsonage were all smashed, during the election riots when William Bowman of Richmond won the first elections by one vote over Robert Fitzgerald of Windsor. Fitzgerald supporters went and smashed the windows of the Bowmanites after their defeat.

Then came December of 1874. On the 23rd day of the month, that all too familiar hot north-westerly gale blew across Windsor. Bowd notes that the shingle roofs and the wood work of the buildings were in a highly flammable condition. It is believed that at about 1:45 pm a spark from Montgomery’s Blacksmith’s shop on the corner of Suffolk and George Streets escaped and set fire to highly inflammable material in Gosper’s Tannery on the opposite corner. The fire rapidly spread up the hill toward Fitzgerald Street, destroying everything in its path. Little could be done to save or quell the fire. A steam fire engine was telegraphed for to Sydney and promptly dispatched on a special train. However, this engine did not arrive until 4:45 pm, the wind had dropped at 3:30 pm and by that time the main danger was over. The only building to be spared was the Hall that James Melville built in 1861. Bowd writes that all told, fifty-three buildings had been destroyed. These included: thirty six residences, seven shops, three tanneries, a church, a hotel, a newspaper office and the Oddfellows Hall which in part was used as the council chambers.

The Wesleyan Church had suffered a devastating blow. However the spirit that had built the first two churches would not be dampened. Work commenced almost immediately to raise funds and rebuild that which was lost.

The view from Macquarie Street, after the Great Fire. Note the now destroyed Church and Parsonage.

Almost one year later to the day the foundation stone for the present church was laid on the 8th of December 1875. Such a fast recovery can only bear testimony to the tireless efforts of this Methodist community. The new church would be built to measure fifty-two feet by thirty-two feet. Funds raised would be from a variety of events, amongst the favourite being “Tea Meetings.”

The new church however would be different in style and architecture. The builders decided to move away from the more traditional Methodist Chapel, but to the neo-gothic style. The building would be built to stand out from the rest of the Windsor skyline; this it has done so for the last one hundred and twenty-five years.

1. 2.

1. Tickets to Luncheon and Tea meetings, this was a means to raise money for the Rebuilding project.

2. A Water Colour postcard of the present Church. Note: the additional spire in the centre of the roof.

So the white church has stood there for all these years. Its name has changed, and so have her people. The congregation has waxed and waned over the years. However, the spirit of her builders is far from gone. As the ancestors of this church have over the years slowly passed on to join with that great cloud of witnesses, others have come to take their place. Today the Church in Windsor may not face a devastating fire, or her livelihood at the mercy of the elements. However, she does face new challenges that come from a variety of places. Some are the secularisation of her society, others from conflicts from without and within. Yet she stands as a witness to the values and faith of the ancestors who built her. Her present custodians are still pledged to be faithful to her place in Windsor’s community and therefore will rebuild themselves in the changing world in which they live.

Macquarie Street Today

Melville’s 1861 Wesley Hall Today

Bibliography
Biggs J.T., Bigge Report 1823, Colony of New South Wales. P. 69:

Bowd, D.G. Macquarie Country, A History of the Hawkesbury, F. W. Cheshire, Sydney 1969

Hawkesbury Gazette, July 17, 1985
Hawkesbury City Library, Local Studies File. – The Great Fire of Windsor 1874.

Photographs, from the private collection of Mrs Molly Melville Bromley, of Richmond N.S.W.

Searle, Tara, Hawkesbury Gazette, December 20, 2000, p 29
Steele, James, Early Days of Windsor N.S.W. Tyrrel’s Limited, Sydney 1916 Town and Country Journal, January 9, 1875

Towner, Arnold C., The Ministry of Methodism Over 100 Years Since the Formation of the Hawkesbury Circuit in 1838 – The Historic Hawkesbury, Epworth Press, Sydney, 1938, Photograph of The Reverend W. Schofield

Vesley, C. M, Oral History Interview: Bromley, Molley Melville, United Theological College, North Parramatta, December 2000.

The White Church and The Whispering Hot Wind.

Charles M. Vesley
United Theological College, North Parramatta, 2001