The bells of Holy Trinity Anglican Church can often be heard tolling from its prominent position in the centre of Orange.
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Built opposite the former Town Hall on the former main street of Orange, Holy Trinity Anglican Church was opened in 1879.
The high Victorian Gothic revival church at the corner of Anson and Byng streets was designed by Sydney architect, Thomas Rowe and opened on August 24, 1879.
It cost 7000 pounds to build and was designed to seat 600 people.
It followed a "cruciform plan", with the layout of a cross with a steep slate roof and a prominent tower and spire.
However, an article published in Orange and District Illustrated in 1928 revealed that initially the "structure was left unfinished, and the debt with added interest imposed entirely on the guarantors and others in the parish to pay off".
However, Canon Walker-Taylor was able to have the debt paid off to permit consecration of the church by St Lukes Day in October 18, 1909, 30 years after the church was opened.
In 2005 the Trinity Foundation was formed to raise funds to help with restoration of the church building.
However, Anglican's had already been holding services in the region for more than 30 years before the church was built.
The bell tower
The church bell tower was dedicated as a memorial tower on August 3, 1919, to honour those who fought in World War I.
The inscription reads: "To the glory of God and in memory of the soldiers and sailors who fought in the Great War 1914-1918".
There is a Memorial Honour Roll and the Colours of the 6th Light Horse Regiment within the Memorial Tower porch.
The installation of the ring of eight bells was completed in 2007.
The oldest of the bells is from Kidderminster in England and was cast in 1754.
Some of them were previously used in churches in the United Kingdom while another, according to the church's bell ringing webpage, used to "bob about on a buoy in the North Sea shipping lane.
Another was cast for Holy Trinity and was a gift from the Orange Ex-Services' Club.
The bells weigh 1.75 tonnes and the Trinity bell, (also known as the tenor), the heaviest at 367 kilograms.
The first computerised bell ringing simulator in NSW was installed in the ringing chamber in 2015.
The simulator allows learner ringers, or pealers, to silently ring one bell, while the simulator acts as the seven other ringers and images on a flat screen indicate when its time for the trainee to pull.
A successful group of bell ringers, the Orange Pealers, who have one many competitions practice in the tower on Tuesday evenings.
The organ
The Holy Trinity pipe organ was originally built in 1911 by the British Pianoforte Deport Ltd.
It was dedicated on January 23, 1913, in memory of Bishop Camidge who died in 1911.
In 1955 it was rebuilt in celebration of 100 years of Anglican teaching in Orange.
The first Anglicans
The first Anglican ministry in the Central West was held in Carcoar in 1845 and the first Rector made periodic visits to other centres.
A year later in 1846, the first Anglican service was held in Orange, which was then called Blackmans Swamp. The service was held at the Five Ways where the now former Uniting Church stands.
Orange was proclaimed a village that year.
Then in April 1851 gold was discovered at Ophir. People flocked to the gold fields and in June 1851 the Reverend Philip Agnew officiated under a tree in the encampment at Ophir to 500 people.
From 1851 to 1855 Reverend Agnew maintained a monthly ministry to Orange.
By 1855 there were 1200 members of the Church of England in Orange.
In October that year Bishop Barker of Sydney travelled to the town and confirmed a number of people in the Orange Court House at the corner of Lords Place and Byng Street.
The Bluestone Hall
A committee was appointed for the construction of a permanent place of worship in August 1856 and in July 1857 the foundation stone was laid for what was to become the Bluestone Hall.
The hall opened in January 1858.
One of those baptised in the hall was bush poet Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson who was born at Narrambla, a property near Orange, which was owned by his aunt and uncle Rose and John Templar.
The Blue Stone Hall also served for a time as the Holy Trinity Grammar School.
The school opened in the hall in 1924 and continued operating there until 1952.
It had a gymnasium and physical culture hall.
Students learnt, English, French and Latin, maths, botany and physiology, history, geography and class singing, drawing, divinity, eurythmics and physical culture.
In January 2007, Orange Anglican Grammar school opened in the Holy Trinity Memorial Hall next to the Bluestone Hall. It started with five students and one teacher and grew to 21 students by the end of the first year.
It has since moved to its current 10 hectare site on Murphy Lane in the city's north-western outskirts.
The hall was sold in 2017 and is now occupied by Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology.
The first Rectory, a timber home for a resident clergyman was also built next to the Bluestone Hall after a building committee was appointed in 1856.
The Rectory
The current Rectory was built in about 1865 and the second-storey balcony was added after 1909.
Holy Trinity Orange is one of the 34 parishes in the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst.
Information courtesy of www.holytrinityorange.com.au, www.oags.nsw.edu.au.