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Sabbath Schools Memorial : 24-August-2011
Sabbath Schools Memorial : 24-August-2011

Photographs supplied by Graeme Saunders

The Sabbath Schools Trees were planted to commemorate Sabbath School movement worldwide. Robert Raikes is credited with pioneering Sunday Schools in the 1780s. 

In 1880 a tree was planted to commemorate the centenary; in 1930 a second tree was planted from a stock grown from the original tree to commemorate the 150th anniversary; and a third tree was planted in 1980 to commemorate the bicentenary. 

Robert Raikes (1735-1811) is traditionally credited as pioneering Sunday Schools in the 1780s. While teaching Bible reading and basic skills on a Sunday was an established activity in some eighteenth century Puritan and evangelical congregations, such as the circulating schools in Wales, Robert Raikes did made a notable contribution to the development of Sunday schooling.

Raikes started his first school for the children of chimney sweeps in Sooty Alley, Gloucester, in 1780. Raikes was able to use his position as proprietor and editor of the Gloucester Journal to publicize his work. After his first editorial in 1783, the idea of the Sunday School caught the imagination of a number of people involved in evangelical churches and groupings, and Sunday Schools spread quickly. By 1785 an undenominational national organization, the Sunday School Society, was set up to support and develop the concept. 

Location

Address:Thompson & French Streets, Botanical Gardens, Hamilton, 3300
State:VIC
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -37.746614
Long: 142.024706
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Trees
Monument Theme:Culture
Sub-Theme:Religion
Approx. Event Start Date:1780

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Friday 2nd July, 1880
Front Inscription

Plaque 1 :

    The Adjoining
        Tree
Was Planted
        In
Commemoration
      Of
      The
Centenary
    Of
Sabbath Schools
     By 
William Thomson
                          Esq.  
      Mayor
     A. Milton
2nd July 1880

Plaque 2 :

The Adjoining Tree Was Planted
               By 
Mrs. M. B. THOMSON
To Commemorate The 150th Anniversary
Of The Establishment Of Sabbath Schools.

       2nd July 1930

Plaque 3:

This Tree Was
Planted By The
Sunday School
 Children Of
Hamilton And
District To
Commemorate
The Bicentenary
Of Sunday
Schools
2nd July 1980 

Source: MA,RUMV
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au