Christ Church

The Cullenswood Church of Christ is of Victorian Rustic-Gothic design, built of rough cut sandstone/dolerite, it has a steeply pitched gable roof with corrugated iron. The wooden double front doors form an arch with the keystone carved with the initials RVL. The bell tower features a weather-vane on the front peak. There is a plaque on the façade inscribed Anno Domini MDCCCXLVII, with a rendered masonry rectory at the rear. The porch and vestry were added in 1869 and the chancel in 1887.

Built for Mr. Robert Vincent Legge in 1847, the church was consecrated in March 1852, an address by several members of the local community was published in The Cornwall Chronicle newspaper on the 20th March 1852 expressing their appreciation for your sole cost and expense of the handsome church. Mr. Legge's response in the same issue thanked and acknowledged the kind address and stated: The site on which the Church has been erected was, when I settled here twenty-four years ago.

The beautiful stained glass windows were added when the building was renovated by William Legge in1887. Country News - From Our Correspondent wrote that a bazaar was opened by the Rev. J.W.H. L'Oste on the 20th December 1887 to raise funds for the repair of the church. Thank you to Peter Dohnt for his wonderful photographs of these windows.

The following information about the windows from the Tasmanian Heritage Register Datasheet:

The church was

renovated by William Legge, which is the period from which the renowned stained glass windows date (late 1800s).

The two earliest windows depict the Lord and St Barnabas. Three later windows were dedicated by William Legge to

his daughter, Major Gray (his uncle), and to his three deceased infant brothers. Another window was dedicated by

Mrs Bromby to her children, and one by public subscription to commemorate the jubilee of the church. Interior

furnishings of the church plaques, the pulpit and font - are dedicated to pioneers of the district, with names such as

Ranson (Killymoon), von Stiegletz (Killymoon) and Groom (Harefield) represented. These names, along with numerous

pioneer families, are also represented on the inscriptions in the cemetery, the earliest monument dating from the 1860s.

In November 1937 Christ Church celebrated its 90th anniversary.