The first combined school and church building opened in 1810 and played a significant role in the early life of Richmond. Situated in Francis Street near the northern corner of the cemetery, the building was arranged with the schoolmaster’s residence on the lower floor, while the upper room served both educational and religious purposes. As the population of the district increased, the building soon proved inadequate for the expanding congregation. At a meeting chaired by the Reverend Samuel Marsden on 26 November 1835, the inhabitants of Richmond resolved to erect a dedicated church for the celebration of divine worship. A notice inviting tenders for the construction of the church appeared in The Australian on 18 October 1836. The committee established to oversee the project included Mr Cox Senior of Fairfield, Mr Cox Junior of Hobartville, Mr Bell of Belmont, Mr George Bowman, Mr William Bowman, Mr Faithful, the Reverend H. T. Styles, Mr Martin Senior, Mr G. Palmer, Mr Digit, Mr C. Powell, Mr Parnell, and Mr C. P. Wood. By 1833, subscriptions had reached A£570, while a further A£200 had been contributed by the English Church Society. Tenders for the erection of the church were subsequently called in The Australian in October 1836.
Constructed following the establishment of the Church Act of 1840, St Peter’s Church was one of four churches consecrated in 1841. The church was erected on a site overlooking Ham Common and the Hawkesbury River flats, and it was agreed that 400 acres of the common would be granted as glebe land for the church. The building was opened by Bishop William Broughton on 15 July 1841. It was designed by Francis Clark and constructed by James Atkinson, who was also responsible for the construction of St Bartholomew’s, Prospect, and St Thomas’s, Mulgoa, during the same period.
Hardy Wilson commenced his systematic survey of the early colonial architecture built between 1790 to 1840 in New South Wales and Tasmania in 1912, completing the project a decade later in 1922. At the time, no comparable architectural survey had been undertaken in Australia. The resulting body of work became an important documentary record of colonial buildings, many of which were subsequently demolished. Wilson’s drawings and written observations therefore preserve detailed evidence of architectural forms, construction methods, and domestic buildings that would otherwise have been lost. It was the first major psurvey dedicated to the documentation and conservation of Australian buildings.
From: Hardy Wilson, Old Colonial Architecture in New South Wales and Tasmania. Sydney, 1924.
