Byng Cornish Settlement ChurchPrint Page

The Memorial Stone unveiled in 1961 marks the site of the first chapel at Cornish Settlement. A tablet marking the site of the church was originally unveiled on Boxing Day 1934. 

When William Tom Senior received his Land Grant west of the River Macquarie, it became known as Springfield and the centre of a remarkable collection of Cornish families, so much so that the location was dubbed the Cornish Settlement. Their initial chosen place of worship was the top of a ridge, soon known as Bethel Rock, and this served as `Parson` Tom`s pulpit until a small Wesleyan chapel was built in 1842.

A service of great historic interest was held at Byng in the Millthorpe Circuit on Boxing Day, when a tablet was unveiled, marking the site of the first Church built west of Bathurst, and known as the Cornish Settlement. The remains of the old Church are still very clearly outlined, but are disappearing very quickly, and the trustees were anxious to mark the site for future generations, and some of the stones scattered about were fathered together and built into a cairn, as near to the entrance of the Church as could be made out, and a marble tablet indicates, "This cairn marks the site of the first Wesleyan Chapel built west of Bathurst at the Cornish Settlement. Opened 1843, closed 1873." The tablet was unveiled by Mrs. Kemp Glasson who, as a child had been baptised in the Church, and could remember many incidents of Sunday School day.
The Methodist (Sydney, NSW),  2 February 1935.

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