The English Church at Sandridge
It started with a tent service in 1854 and, since the sale and subsequent re-development of the main church building as apartments, continues the tradition of the Anglican Church in Port Melbourne at the now commissioned parish hall.
To celebrate the 160th year of The English Church at Sandridge, the Port Melbourne Historical & Preservation Society present an exhibition on the early history and developing story of Holy Trinity Anglican Church of Bay Street, including some of the items rescued from the church itself when that historic building was sold to developers in the 1990s.
June 12th – 30th June 2014
Port Melbourne Town Hall
333 Bay Street
during Library hours
1 Comments
Albert Caton
When I lived in Alfred Street in the later 1940s I attended Sunday School at the Baptist Church across from 95 Ross Street. In the 1950s, because we were Anglican, I was allowed to walk to Bay Street to attend Sunday School (in the Parish Hall) and church at Holy Trinity on Bay Street.
I don’t recall who ran Sunday School, but eventually a group of about four of us were given Catechism lessons in the area to the left of the entrance, just past the Baptismal font. I think they were led by a Miss Mortimer? She warned us to be good, lest Jesus leave our names off the ‘Book of Life’. Perhaps I strayed; but I might have had special dispensation because I’d been dragooned into the choir.
The Choir Master (he played the church organ at services) was Mr Webb. He auditioned me, running through ever-higher scales of ‘Coo Coo Coo Coo Coo Coo Coo Coo’. Because I maintained my unbroken juvenile soprano he grudgingly accepted me.
The vicar at the time was Canon Nicholls.
The Parish Hall was used for wedding receptions occasionally, and there were dances and fancy dress balls at times. Also, Scouts and Cubs (probably Guides too) dib, dib, dibbed or dub, dub, dubbed there.