Created by Melbourne stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie in 1860 for the opening of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church, the non-figurative stained glass in the great western window features design elements typical of their work. They feature stylised floral designs and uses a striking colour palatte of blue, red green and gold. The lancet windows have a border of coloured circles which in turn is bordered by squares dispersed with stylised flowers, also a common element of Ferguson and Urie's windows. Each lancet window features elegant quatrefoils surrounded by stylised vine leaves. Each quatrefoil has a stylised flower in the centre featuring a Tudor Rose sitting in the middle. The windows above have a very similar treatment with the use of stylised floral design.
Rising proudly on the rise of a hill, the former Saint George’s Presbyterian Church, which stands on the corner of Latrobe Terrace and Ryrie Street on the outskirts of the Geelong central business district, began its construction in 1860. Designed by architect Nathaniel Billing in Victorian English Gothic style, the original large nave of the church, with vestry and apse were constructed of irregularly coursed basalt with Hawksbury River freestone dressings. The initial build was erected and completed in 1861 by contractors Brown and Gibson. The foundation stone was laid on 12 June 1861. The large and finely constructed church reflects the wealth of many of the church's foundation patrons, which included Francis Ormond and other Western District Squatters. The former Saint George’s Presbyterian Church is a significant and intact work of Nathaniel Billing, who was well known for ecclesiastical architecture. The original church was expanded with the addition of transepts in 1908, and finally a spire and tower in 1936. The tower and spire were donated as a seventy-fifth anniversary gift by wealthy parishioners James McPhillimy and his sister Louise. The McPhillimy family were not only wealthy parisioners, but were also long time worshipers at Saint George’s Persbyterian Church. They began worshiping there in 1886.
The inside of the former Saint George’s Presbyterian Church is quite plain, with white painted walls and three rows of blackwood pews separated by two aisles. The church features examples of its original latticed quarry glass lancet windows with one band of coloured glass, as well as several figurative stained glass windows installed later. This includes two pairs of lancet windows manufactured by Ballantyne and Company of Edinburgh, which are perhaps the church’s most beautiful windows for their wonderful colours and beautiful hand-painted details. There is also two windows by Melbourne stained glass manufacturers Brooks Robinson and Company installed in the 1930s, and a fine heritage listed stained glass window by one of Melbourne’s leading stained glass artists, William Montgomery, which commemorates the fallen of the Great War. The church’s rose window and great western window created by Melbourne stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie are the oldest windows, and like the quarry glass windows, are original.
Saint George's Presbyterian Church was forced to close its doors in 2015 owing to dwindling congregation numbers, and whilst the Presbyterian Church still owns the church and manse, the manse is now rented out and has been used for both commercial and residential purposes. The church itself sits idly, its slowly weathering exterior requiring significant restoration, its garden sinking into neglect and its interior lying beneath a sheet of thick dust.
I am very grateful to the retired Presbyterian Reverend Andrew Bray, caretaker of the church at the time of photographing, for giving me an hour of his time and for letting me photograph the interior and stained glass windows so extensively.
Nathaniel Billing was born in Brightwell, Oxfordshire in 1821. Articled to the prestigious office of Sir Gilbert Scott in London, he later commenced his own architectural practice in Slough under his own name. Nathaniel married his first wife, Henrietta in 1850. Three years later the pair and their family immigrated to Australia. he was appointed to the Colonial Architect's Office in Belfast (now known as Port Fairy), but commenced his own practice there in 1855. In Port Fairy he designed Saint John's Church of England in 1856 and the Bank of Australasia in 1857. That same year, Nathaniel left Port Fairy and moved to Melbourne, where he soon had a thriving practice. In Melbourne, most of his commissions were ecclesiastical. He designed All Saints Church of England on Chapel Street in 1861 which with a seating capacity of 1,500 is the largest Church of England in the southern hemisphere, Saint Margaret's Church of England in Eltham in 1861, alterations to Melville House in Collins Street in 1881, "Steamshall" a Victorian Italianate villa in Kew in 1882, Saint Paul's Cathedral in Sale in 1884, Saint Matthias' Church of England in Richmond in 1885, the Fitzroy Cricket Ground grandstand in 1888, and extensions to Saint George's Church of England in 1889 in conjunction with the architects firm Dalton and Gibbons. Nathaniel's first wife Henrietta died in 1867 after nineteen years of marriage, four sons and five daughters. Nathaniel remarried in 1869, taking Mary Anne Hooke as his wife. They had no children together. Nathaniel's fourth child, William Urban Billing, joined his firm in 1880 and practiced as Billing and Son. They worked together until 1895 when Nathaniel retired. Nathaniel died at his home in Westbury Street East St Kilda in 1910 at the age of 88.
The stained glass firm of Ferguson and Urie was established by Scots James Ferguson (1818 – 1894), James Urie (1828 – 1890) and John Lamb Lyon (1836 – 1916). They were the first known makers of stained glass in Australia. Until the early 1860s, window glass in Melbourne had been clear or plain coloured, and nearly all was imported, but new churches and elaborate buildings created a demand for pictorial windows. The three Scotsmen set up Ferguson and Urie in 1862 and the business thrived until 1899, when it ceased operation, with only John Lamb Lyon left alive. Ferguson and Urie was the most successful Nineteenth Century Australian stained glass window making company. Among their earliest works were a Shakespeare window for the Haymarket Theatre in Bourke Street, a memorial window to Prince Albert in Holy Trinity, Kew, and a set of Apostles for the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church. Their palatial Gothic Revival office building stood at 283 Collins Street from 1875. Ironically, their last major commission, a window depicting “labour”, was installed in the old Melbourne Stock Exchange in Collins Street in 1893 on the eve of the bank crash. Their windows can be found throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne and across provincial Victoria.
