I Attended St Christopher’s Hostel 1964-67 and at the time probably did not enjoy a very early start and walk to be at the 7am Sunday service. Usually there were around 120 boys down the left side and a few brave parishioners on the right.
I certainly appreciated the beautiful old building and loved the music. I had attended church regularly before that so it was something I respected and enjoyed.
There were of course many boys who were different religions or just plain did not want to be there and some disrespectful humour occasionally - when 120 boys get the giggles it can be quite a thing to laugh when you are trying your hardest not to. A stern glare from our Warden usually stopped it.
I attended the funeral of Hughie McGuinness a few years ago. He and John Abraham were attached to Northam when they first graduated and before their first appointment to their own Parishes - sometime around the late 1950s. Hughie was a very large with a big girth and John a slight short chap. Apparently the boys named them Friar Tuck and Little John. John did the eulogy for Hughie at St George’s Cathedral and it was lovely to hear many tales particularly of early Northam days and Hughies work with the Aboriginal community and St Bart’s in later years - and of course their Nicknames. What I learned in the hard school of boarding days was that you weren’t anybody in Australia unless you earned a Nickname!!
I came across an old history of The Parish of Northam written by Canon A Burton which seems to finish just after damage from the Meckering Earthquake was repaired. It starts with the Morrell family arriving in the area and organising a meeting in 1844 of settlers to establish a church.
I presume you would have a copy however please let me know if you don’t and I would be happy to mail it to you.
Regards
Timothy Ellis
Great people