The three 'lives' of St. Matthew's Anglican Church,
5. The O'Connor Church 1992-1994
"The church must now ask whether it should get rid of Blacket's work and build a new nave to match the 1876 chancel and possibly a new tower, too.... Some parishioners believe it is a golden opportunity to at last give Albury an Anglican Mini-cathedral... It is not the parish's job to merely recreate an ancient monument" (Jones 1993a)
The Border Mail states "While new churches elsewhere are being built with the 21st century in mind, St. Matthew's will recreate a 19th century church. This was the decision of the parishioners who want it rebuilt as neare as possible to the church in which they had always worshipped" (Jones 1993a)
The foundation stone for the new church was laid on 10 October 1993 (Jones 1993a) and the church was reconsecrated on 21 September 1994 (St. Matthew's Parish 1994).
It is clear that the church administration had clear ideal it wished to fulfil. In 1993 Archdeacon Davis proclaimed "The [$420,000] organ will help the church achieve its aim of making St. Matthew's an important venue for recitals and concerts, as well as church services" (Jones 1993a).
This was facillitatted by a compliant architect. Ian O'Connor is on record as saying "Because the National Trust did not regard St. Matthew's as one of Blacket's best churches, it was not listed and we were able to do much more with it" (Jones & Lowe 1994, p. 21). In a 1992 article, Jones agued that "St. Matthew's did not earn its place in the hearts of Albury people for its beauty but because of its association with the landmarks of life." (Jones 1992)
This is reinforced by the view of the authors of the conservation study who state:
St. Matthew's has been ever since the beginning of its construction, the principal focus of Anglican religious life in the parish of Albury, and the wider border region extending along the Murray Valley and the South Eastern Riverina. It has always been the mother church for the parish and often functions as the venue for many community and civic occasions. It forms an essential part of the social and business life in the centre of Albury." (Lucas et al. 1992).
" The fire damaged remains of St. Matthew's Church, Albury should be retained and conserved.The site of St. Matthew's Church, Albury, should continue to be used as a place of worship.
The work of both Edmund Blacket and William Boles should be respected in any proposed development of the place. This therefore prevents the completion of either the Blacket or the Boles design as they were originally intended, as one would involve the complete removal of the other.
The scale, form and materials of the late 19th Century St. Matthew's Church, Albury should be retained for its architectural and townscape qualities.
St. Matthew's Church Albury has been created by and has contained elements of high quality design and craftsmanship from the second half of the 19th Century. This should be acknowledged in any new work on these elements.
The surviving significant elements of St. Matthew's Church, the setting and the adjacent rectory have a unique ability to demonstrate the evolution of the place. This should be respected in any work or development of the place. " (Lucas et al. 1992).
The following are the coments with respect to to the comunity's interests:
"The Parish and Vestry of Albury - require the use of the site for purposes of religious worship.
The church as it stood prior to the fire was considered too small for the needs of the Parish and they require any new or reconstructed church to accommodate a larger congregation.
The design of the church structure internally, particularly the Boles section, was held in high esteem and affection by the Parish and Clergy and they have expressed a strong desire to have it reconstructed.
The junction of the Blacket and Boles design was considered by the Parish to be less than satisfactory and should be improved in any new work." (Lucas et al. 1992).
"Fabric & SettingAs much as possible of the remaining fabric of the church should be preserved and incorporated into the reconstructed building.
All elements of significance in the setting should be preserved and if necessary repaired. This includes memorials, trees, fences. The memorials and fences may require relocation to suit the new church.
The existing relationship between church and rectory should be maintained.
Extent of Preservation and Reconstruction
The transept, crossing, sanctuary and the St. Francis chapel (in the location of the original organ chamber) should be preserved and reconstructed to the known configuration of Boles' work.
The sanctuary east window by Lyon, Cottier & Co. should be reconstructed to its known original configuration, but clearly dated to show they are reconstructions.
The west end and tower by Edmund Blacket should be preserved and incorporated into the new church. The scale and detail of the Blacket design should be respected.
At least one bay, preferably two, of the Blacket nave should be preserved at the west end. This will be influenced by the extent of accommodation required. The Blacket roof structure should be reconstructed over this section.
The south porch by Blacket should if possible be preserved in situ. Its removal or relocation should only be considered if the church is to be widened at this point.
The slate roof should be reconstructed and extended to cover the whole church.
Extent of Adaptation and New Work.
The adapted or new sections of the nave (where not reconstructed) should vary visibly from both the Blacket and Boles work. It should however be in sympathy with it, but not be a slavish copy of either. Externally the materials should be consistent with the earlier work.
The existing choir vestry east of the tower should be removed and the missing tower buttress reconstructed.
All new work including reconstruction should be identifiable on close inspection as new work. Roof members should be stamped or branded with the date.
The internal arrangement of the church should be adapted to reflect the parish needs, current liturgy and available furniture. Reconstruction of destroyed elements which relate only to a redundant liturgy should be avoided. " (Lucas et al. 1992)
As portrayed by the media, "Mr. O'Connor's plan produces the larger nave, but recognises the parishioner's wishes to preserve Blacket's west wall with its Romanesque-style main doorway." (Jones 1993a).
Lucas et al. (1992) argued:
"The one element which would provide the much needed focus in this [central town heritage] precinct and townscape is the tower and spire. The completion of this element of the church would complete the vision of the 19th century planners of the spiritual focus at the centre of the town. Architecturally, it would significantly enhance the existing church complex and the surrounding streetscapes. It should be compared with the effect that the recent completion of the tower and spire of Bendigo Cathedral had on the surrounding townscape.The date the local authorities have resisted the urge to construct higher buildings in the central area. This has maintained a scale and harmony of townscape which is of high quality and is one of Albury's attractions. St. Matthew's fits well with this and should the spire be completed, would significantly add to this quality. "
In the absence of plans of the Blacket church, the design of the tower had to rely on surviving examples of Blacket's work in other churches. Blacket's own 1873 enlargement plans, which were based on a church of similar width, presumably utilising the existing nave saw an elaborate tower (see plan in Kerr 1977, p. 14). Instead of using this design, however, the tower design chosen by O'Connor draws on the Blacket tower of All Saints Church in Tumut.
The tower comprises of the old Blacket base, which had been given a concrete reinforced foundation to allow for the greater load of the tower, a tower shell of precast concrete panels and a granite cladding. The cladding for the tower was sourced from the quarried granite taken from the demolished three bays of the Blacket nave as well as the porch.
If completed, Albury would have been an example of the " standard Blacket formula of nave and lower square chancel, south porch and north vestry, triple (round-headed) lancets at the east end, two lancets at the west and single ones at the sides" (Kerr 1977, p. 305). The removal of the porch reduced the reminder of Blacket's design to a minium.
The stone could have been consolidated and the decay halted using irreversible treatments, or could have been reconstructed using the same or similar materials. Instead a completely new tracery, using white stone was made, which completely changes the expression of the eastern facade and which completely negates the contribution of the local craftspeople.
As a result of the redesigning of the church, with the creation of a permanent western end to the nave, a wall area became available on which a large rose window could be placed. The rose window is in a Romanesque style, "to blend with the main window over the altar in the opposite east wall" (Anonymous 1994a). The rose window consists of a multifoil (6) and six triangular segments.
The other windows of the Boles' church were restored. The new windows of the O'Connor church follow the design of the Boles's nave windows, but are visually different, thus complying with the need to be able to distinguish between old and new work.
All new stained glass was created and designed by Kevin Little of Sydney.
The installation of the newly created rose window facing occurred in July 1994. On that occasion the artist, Kevin Little claimed that "it would be at least 150 years before any of the churches 30 stained glass windows would require maintenance" (Anonymous 1994a). The window was created at a cost of $18,000.
The large eastern window, created at a cost of $140,000 "incorporate[s] pieces of glass salvaged after the church was destroyed by fire almost three years ago" (Anonymous 1994a). The four windows below the rose are replicas of those lost in the fire. The design as well as the colours could be replicated based on several examples of wedding photos. As the tracery of the eastern window was altered substantially, the new rose in the upper section of the eastern widow does not follow existing examples, and is the artwork of Kevin Little.
The other windows, where they do have stained glass, are new designs, among them the new St. Matthew's window which depicts Phoenix rising from the ashes, symbolising the rebuilding of St. Matthew's. This window incorporates the only stained glass window which survived the 1991 fire. It had originally been placed in the porch of the Boles church which was not fire damaged.
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