1826
Years modified
1861, 1862, 1870, 1875, 1891, 1954, 1983
About St Anne's Church
This attractive church is a rare Victorian Free Gothic style building with a churchyard cemetery. It is located on Jones' Farm granted to William Jones in 1792.
In 1794, John Small took an adjacent grant and it was in Small's barn that the first services were held in 1798 before a simple slab chapel and school was built in 1800 by Reverend Roland Hassall, partly funded through public subscription. The opening service was conducted by Reverend Richard Johnson and Reverend Samuel Marsden.
In 1826, a larger sandstone chapel schoolhouse, now the church nave, was constructed. Small by then owned Jones' Farm and the Church negotiated a land swap to create a manageable glebe of parish land. The building continued to function as a school until 1838 when the Hunters Hill Parochial School was opened on the corner of Belmore Street and Victoria Road.
In 1858, most of the Church glebe was divided and sold on 99-year leases into small farms and residential plots between Church and William Streets.
The church was extended in 1861-62 when a sandstone tower was added followed by the bell and clock in 1875.
ln 1983, the vestries were extended and the organ moved from the chancel to the gallery. There are a number of memorial plaques and stained-glass windows dedicated to district pioneers inside the church.