St Thomas Anglican Church Hampton will celebrate its 120th Anniversary on Sunday, November 12 at 11.30am, followed by refreshments.
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All are welcome to revisit and share old acquaintanceship with the congregation.
For many years there was no Anglican Church in Hampton, an area rich in the history of pioneer farmers and timber cutters dating back to the 1840s.
In 1813 only eight kilometres up the Hampton Road from the site later chosen for the church, Deputy Surveyor George Evans was the first known European to have crossed the Great Divide.
In 1892 The Rev Thomas J Heffernan from Mt Victoria was ministering to parishioners at Hampton and arranged for a site for a church to be donated. The donor was P H Chauncy, the land a subsection of one of the Wilson family paddocks now on Wicketty War Road.
Rev. Heffernan's father, Rev W Heffernan, laid a foundation stone on 9 November 1897 but building did not begin until 1905.
Using stone quarried at Norman Lea on the Hampton/Rydal Road by Macarthur, cut by local stonemason, Billy Boyd, the contractor E Cooke of Jenolan Caves and the foreman, D Chalmers, completed the church early in 1907.
The wife of the donor Mrs Chauncy was presented with 'a beautiful gold brooch, set with pearls and sapphires' when Canon Boyce opened the church on February 23,1907.
The hall adjacent was opened on March 8, 1964, donated by Mr and Mrs J Finlay and in the same year the church was finally cleared of debt and consecrated.
It is now part of the parish of Blackheath administered by the Anglican Diocese of Sydney but also cared for by Oberon ministers and lay ministers who officiate at the services.