Mount Wilson

St. George Church

In the pretty township of Mount Wilson high in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, there is a delightful little church called St. George built as a memorial to an important and progressive resident of that small Mountain community, who died in the early years of the twentieth century.  

His name was Henry Marcus Clark who rose to fame as a prominent Sydney retailer establishing a retail store chain in 1883 with a network of branches in towns and suburbs across Australia.  He began in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, but later expanded into George Street in the heart of Sydney opposite the new Central Railway Station.  The store was called Marcus Clark & Co.  a Department store in an impressive 9 storey high building, the tallest skyscraper in Sydney at the time.    The building, is now known as the Marcus Clark building, and is home to the Sydney Institute of TAFE.

I have a family connection to Henry Marcus Clark as he married my Great Aunt, Martha Anne Day (known as "Pattie") and after her death he married her sister Georgina May Day (known as "May").  Between the two sisters there was a family of seven children, my father's cousins.

As a child, my sister and I spent school holidays at Sefton Hall in Mount Wilson with our extended Day family relatives.  This was the home, bought from the Cox family and transformed by Henry Marcus Clark into the imposing and grandly titled Sefton Hall, where he lived for the last three years of his life.  The home was retained as a holiday home by the Clark family for many years after Henry passed away.  My sister and I have happy childhood memories of our time spent there and especially exploring the house and grounds of that grand old house, with our cousins and even attending Sunday School in the Caretaker's Cottage. 

The Church and cemetery sit in a picturesque setting of Australian tree ferns and Eucalypts, but it still evokes the feeling of an English parochial village church.  The Church was built on land donated by Richard Owen Wynne, the owner of Wynstay and the cost of the building was borne by the Clark family.

This is Sefton Hall where Henry Marcus Clark lived.   He became very ill with pancreatitis and in 1913 specialist physicians were called in and they quickly decided to perform an emergency operation on the dining room table!  Unfortunately, it was not successful and he did not survive the operation.

The Church is built of fibro and timber battens were used to cover joins in the fibro walls.  There are pressed metal surrounds at the base of the building, which were popular at the time as a cheaper alternative to sandstone.  The same building materials are used in Sefton Hall.  The Church was built by Albert Kirk from the prominent Kirk family living in the area.

This is a stained glass window in the church erected in loving memory of Henry Marcus Clark.

Henry Marcus Clark was born in Lancashire, England in 1859 and grew up in the village of Sefton near Liverpool.  He migrated to Australia at the age of 21.  He lived briefly with his uncle in Melbourne, but travelled overland to NSW and took up employment in John Kingsbury's drapery store in Newtown.  John Kingsbury was the son of one of the founding fathers of the Churches of Christ in NSW and Henry Marcus Clark had a similar religious conviction.  

Henry met Martha Anne Day whilst working in the Newtown store, as the Day family lived close by in Marrickville.  The Day family were also of the same faith. William Edwin Day (my grandfather and Martha and May's brother) was a lay preacher and their father George Day (my great grandfather)  was a Minister of Religion in the Church of Christ.

Henry Marcus Clark was succeeded by his eldest son Reginald Marcus Clark.  However, Reginald's views and ideas were changing, as the First World War was about to begin and the Church of Christ connection did not survive for long after the death of Henry.   The beautiful Church of St. George, built in Mount Wilson as a memorial to Henry Marcus Clark in 1915, was consecrated as an Anglican Church in 1916.  

The Church today is part of the Anglican Blackheath Parish and services are normally held on the second Sunday of the month at 3.00 pm.  Visitors are usually welcome, but during these Covid times there may be restrictions in place.

Acknowledgments

1.  NSW Government Office of Environment & Heritage Mw004

2.  Community Website of Mount Wilson and Mount Irvine

3.  Paper No. 2 Churches of Christ New South Wales Occasional papers

in history and theology.

4.  Blue Mountains Library local studies.