A Glimpse of Two Churches

Gunning Uniting Church today, Warrataw Street, Gunning. Photo by Mattinbgn / CC BY 3.0

Guest article by Garry Norman Smith

At three o’clock on Wednesday 16 January 1849, Dr Benjamin Clayton JP laid the foundation stone for the “New Wesleyan Chapel” in Gunning. A sermon was preached on the occasion by the Reverend W.B. Boyce, General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Missions in Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.

From the Goulburn Herald and
County of Argyle Advertiser,
13 January 1849, via Trove.

Gunning Uniting Church,
Built by Coates & Sons,
Parramatta. Photo by
Garry Smith.

Despite the official opening of the chapel taking place in July 1849, the gazetting of the land grant to the church did not appear until December 1849; the bureaucracy lagged well behind. The Colonial Secretary’s Office in Sydney announced that land had been granted at the intersection of Warrataw and Cullavin Streets, Gunning for a Wesleyan Chapel, a Wesleyan School and a Wesleyan Minister’s Residence.

The following year the Colonial Secretary’s Office gazetted title deeds for the land in the names of George Wigram Allen, John Caldwell and Mark Blanchard. The land was “in trust” and was one acre for the chapel - two roods for the residence and two roods for the school house (2 roods = ½ acre or 0.2024 hectares).

Architect Thomas Rowe.
Photo via Wikimedia

Description of the church
from 1876 via Trove
(click to view).

When the church was opened on Wednesday 11 July 1849, the chapel "was filled by a respectable and attentive congregation" in a space with room for 130 worshippers. An afternoon tea and public meeting, chaired by Dr Clayton, followed the opening and sermon by the Reverend James A. Learmonth from Van Dieman’s Land.

Part of the Foundations of
the original Wesleyan
Chapel of 1849.
Photo by Garry Smith.

The opening of the next new Wesleyan Church in Gunning was a major event in town in 1876. The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle carried an advertisement on Saturday 18 March 1876 listed the events for the special occasion, including three sermons by the Reverend Hurst on Easter Sunday and a public luncheon and meeting on Easter Monday.

The special services lasted, on and off, until Monday 1 May.

In contrast to the relatively small interior of the original chapel – 28 feet x 18 feet – the new church at the corner of Warrataw and Biala Streets measured 50 feet x 32 feet. A full description of the church was detailed in the Goulburn Herald and Chronicle on 19 April 1876.