Anglican Church Hall (Former Common School No. 860) & Christ Church Anglican Church, 61-63 Stephenson Street, GREAT WESTERN
61-63 Stephenson Street GREAT WESTERN, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, makes a significant architectural and cultural contribution to the Great Western township. The building is visually connected to the immediately neighbouring Anglican Church building, and also to the Great Western School. It was erected in 1867 as the first permanent Common School at Great Western, replacing a number of private schools, which were set up to educate the children of miners who had come to the area after gold was discovered in 1858. In 1873 it became known as Common School No. 860, a number which was transferred to the present school when it opened in 1881. The former school building was sold to the Church of England and opened as their first permanent place of worship in Great Western in 1885. When the adjacent Christ Church was opened in 1911, the present building became the Sunday School and Church Hall.
The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of a Victorian Primitive Gothic Revival style. These qualities include the parapetted steeply pitched gable roof form, together with the porch gable that projects from the main gable end. Other intact qualities include the galvanised corrugated iron roof cladding, brick wall construction, rendered parapet copings, corbelled gable ends, lancet window, regularly arranged windows at the sides, rendered window sills, pointed timber porch door, and the projecting brick quoins (each 4 courses high). The memorial gates with granite piers, timber post and rail and woven wire fence, and mature pine trees and eucalyptus also contribute to the significance of the place.
The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with the establishment of a permanent school building in the Great Western township in 1867, replacing earlier private schools set up to educate the children of miners who had come to the area after gold was discovered in 1858. It is further associated with the Church of England, who used it as their first permanent place of worship from early 1885. When the present Christ Church was opened in 1911, it became the Sunday School and Church Hall.
The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised and valued by the Great Western community, as a legacy of the centre of education in the township in the 19th century, and later, as part of the Anglican Church.
Overall, the former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is of LOCAL significance.
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Anglican Church Hall (Former Common School No. 860) & Christ Church Anglican Church, 61-63 Stephenson Street, GREAT WESTERN - Physical Description 1
The former Common School, corner Stephenson and Rennie Streets, Great Western, makes a significant contribution to the architectural and cultural amenity of the township. It neighbours the Anglican Church (being situated on the same site) and has visual connections to the Great Western School. The grounds are substantial, and are largely characterised by grassed areas with perimeter shrubs and trees, including mature pine trees and eucalyptus. The corner of the site is identified by the memorial metal gates with granite piers, while the site is bound by a recent tubular steel post and rail fence and an early timber post and rail and woven wire fence.
The symmetrical, brick, Victorian Primitive Gothic Revival styled former Common School building is characterised by a steeply pitched parapetted roof form, together with a centrally located minor porch gable that projects from the main gable end. These roof forms are clad in lapped galvanised corrugated iron. The main gable end has a narrow lancet window above the porch gable, while a pointed timber door is centrally located in the porch. The parapeted gable ends of the building have rendered copings which terminate in corbels at the sides, below which are projecting brick quoins, each four courses high. The sides of the building have three regularly spaced flat headed windows with rendered window sills.
There is some substantial wall cracking over the main gable end and on the porch gable, while a service conduit inappropriately punctuates the main gable.
Heritage Study and Grading
Northern Grampians - Shire of Northern Grampians - Stage 2 Heritage Study
Author: Wendy Jacobs, Vicki Johnson, David Rowe, Phil Taylor
Year: 2004
Grading:
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SEPPELTS CHAMPAGNE CELLARSVictorian Heritage Register H0338
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ST PETER'S VINEYARDVictorian Heritage Inventory
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Former Common SchoolNational Trust
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