Picton Anglican Church

Foundation stone records: This the foundation stone of - St Mark's Church, Picton - was laid by the Rev Edward Rogers - Minister of the Parish - on the 16th day of July AD 1850 - J M Antill, J Templeton, T Larkin, J Crispe ~ Building Committee.

A heritage plaque records: 1856 - St Mark's - Church of England, Picton. - The first Anglican services were held in 1825 at the home of Major Antill, one of the first European settlers in the Picton area. When a small court house was built on the Major's property (he was the Police Magistrate, and the family served the local court for three generations), services were held there. - The local rector was the Reverend Thomas Hassell of Denbigh, Cobbity, and his parish stretched to Goulburn, across to Wollongong and south to Mulgoa. In 1839 the Reverend Frederick Wilkinson had a smaller area to cover, from his house at the Hermitage, The Oaks. Next came the Reverend Edward Rogers from 1848, and by now money was being raised to build a church on land donated by the Antill family, in Menangle Street West. - The foundatiuon stone was laid in July 1850, the church being designed by Edmund Blacket, with Thomas Smith, G Wandess and Barnsdale as masons. T Cashman and John Iceton as carpenters. Whitfield doing the iron work, painting by W Brown and fencing by Abel Sant and Rosette. - Unfortunately the work went very slowly, as the gold rushes affected the supply of labour, and it was not completed until 1856. - The original church was tiny, and as the town grew in the 1860s with the arrival of the railway line, so the nave was extended 12 feet, and a vestry was added. Then in 1886 Blacket's sons, Cyril and Arthur, designed the transepts which provided even more room. The original wooden shingles were replaced with slate in 1904, and then by tiles in 1930. Oil lamps were used for lighting until 1922, when electricity was connected. - The earliest burials in the graveyard date from 1858, though severe flooding in the 1860s and later has affected those graves closest to Stonequarry Creek, as well as the church. Levy banks provide some protection now. - A list of rectors follows -...