St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Mudgee

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, officially, St Mary of the Presentation Church, is a heritage-listed Roman Catholic church at 13 Church Street, Mudgee, Mid-Western Regional Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.^[1]

History

The church was first built in 1857, when local priest Father Callaghan McCarthy had built a church, sanctuary and sacristy. It was effectively rebuilt by between 1873 and 1876 to the design of Edward Gell, with Tambaroora contractor Mr. Webb and Bathurst stonemason Mr. Burns carrying out the work. The new design incorporated the pre-existing sanctuary and sacristy in the redevelopment while constructing the body of the current church. The foundation stone of the rebuilt church was laid on 7 December 1873 and it formally opened on 11 November 1876. The spire was added to the tower in 1911.^[2][3]

Description

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church is a sandstone church in Victorian Ecclesiastical Gothic designed by Bathurst country architect, Edward Gell. It has an especially fine western facade with pointed arched doorway and side recesses and narrowly pointed stained glass windows. Beautifully scaled rose window in stone and stained glass. The church has a tower with flared copper spire balanced in a symmetrical composition with gable end of southern aisle. The side elevation features repeating pointed arched stained glass windows.^[1]

The church organ was built in 1866 by J. W. Walker of London for St Jude's Anglican Church, Randwick. Under direction of Charles Richardson, in 1907 the organ was transferred from Randwick to Mudgee with a new set of pipes to the old specification. Richardson also decorated the display pipes in his style, and other alterations included the fitting of a new keyboard, the addition of a tremulant, and the removal of the hand-blowing apparatus.^[4]

Heritage listing

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church is a fine church from the post-gold rush era, making a significant contribution to the character of the central area of Mudgee.^[1]

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.^[1]

Gallery

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  St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Presbytery, Convent & Hall - PCO Plan Number 685

See also

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Presbytery, Convent & Hall". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H00685. Retrieved 2 June 2018. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC-BY 4.0 licence.
2. ^ "History". St Mary of the Presentation Catholic Parish, Mudgee. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
3. ^ "St Marys Catholic Church, 13 Church St, Mudgee, NSW, Australia". Register of the National Estate. Department of the Environment and Energy. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
4. ^ "St Mary's Catholic Church". Organ Historical Trust of Australia. 1990. Retrieved 11 December 2019.