STOCKWELL : ST THOMAS

LUTHERAN

PAUL SCOTT

HISTORY

 

Year Built: 1904

Address: 1 Stockwell Road, Stockwell SA 5355

Stockwell is a settlement in South Australia. At the 2006 census, Stockwell had a population of 534. Stockwell is named after Samuel Stockwell, an early landowner in the area. Stockwell was a station on the Truro railway line from 1917 to 1968 when the line closed to regular service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockwell,_South_Australia

 

The congregation of St Thomas in Stockwell were originally members of various surrounding churches of the Barossa Valley. In 1856 they built a clay building on land that belonged to George Fife Angas that they began using as a church. With the deteriorating conditions of the building and the growing number of members to the congregation, they decided to build a whole new church. This church was dedicated in 1904. The tower and bell were added to the building in 1929, and the pipe organ in 1938.

https://bvhistory.wixsite.com/barossa-history/st-thomas-church---stockwell

 

Stockwell was a thriving township until the main road bypassed it in 1885. A resting place on the stock route, by 1856 it had two stores with a third in 1875. In 1857 came a post office and the Stockwell Inn. In 1882, a maternity hospital was opened serving its purpose until 1939 when the Angaston hospital opened. The town itself had resulted from the sale of a subdivision of land in April 1854 owned by Samuel Stockwell, an English migrant butcher and colt breaker. The previous year he had purchased land near the creek to erect a steam mill, completed, in 1854 by J. Kunoth and Edward Clements. The first church serving the settlers was also a Christian school situated to the north-east of the town. The Salem congregation, which had used the building for worship each Wednesday evening and Sundays since 1856, finally outgrew the facility. Only 11 feet wide and 42 feet long (3.36m x 12.8m), with additional rooms on the southern end used for residential purposes, it was no longer adequate. In Pastor Hossfeld’s words, the little clay church became dilapidated under the growing tooth of time and the necessity of a new church made itself felt more and more.

Thus in 1903 the decision was taken to build the current church. Some doubt had apparently been expressed as to whether a church would be built in Stockwell and, as folklore has it, that led to the naming of the church. The doubts were unfounded for on 7 August 1904 the church of St Thomas was dedicated. With a vestry added to the rear, the church itself was 45 feet in length, 35 feet wide, with walls 14 ½ feet high (13.73m x 10.68m x 4.42m) to accommodate 250 persons. 25 years later preparations were being made to celebrate the occasion. Decisions were made to build a tower, provide new furnishings of altar, pulpit and lectern, and repaint the interior. The Boer family who now owned the mill presented a new bell poured in Bochum Germany (Tone E Measurements 30 x 23). The day of celebration was to be Sunday 10 August 1929. Although earlier histories suggest the organ came from Bethany at this time, there is no mention of it. In fact, it was to be the congregation’s next project, realised nine years later with a dedication on 12 June 1938.

https://www.ohta.org.au/organs/organs/Stockwell.html