Nandewar Historical Society - Cobbadah Church History - Organ

This has been a quiet week for history with few queries but next week is leading up to the July Markets and sure to be busier. The Society will be represented at the Collections seminar in Tamworth next week and there are sure to bea few fresh ideas. As promised last week we continue with the Cobbadah Church and its later history.

The first organ was a repaired old one from the Bingara Church and it lasted awhile until Mrs Mason and my grandmother Mrs Roy Crowley, canvassed the district collecting 80 pounds towards a new organ which was installed in the early 1920's.

The new organ was installed possibly 1923 and was played by Jessie Crowley for the next 25 years with a small break when Mrs Judy Markwell and local school teacher, Mr McKenzie took over. Jessie returned to the organ and played until her health forced her retirement in 1952 — there is a memorial plate on the organ dedicated to her many years of playing the organ.

Anyone visiting the church may have noticed that the organ sat in a wooden box complete with a screw down lid to keep it safe — it has been successful in a couple of mouse plagues and was actually built by Mr Wearne to keep out the resident lizards after one vacated the organ during a hymn, upsetting the organist.

As Jessie Crowley retired due to ill health early in 1952 her daughter-in- law, Jesser Crowley took over the organ playing until she suffered a fall in 2004. The organ is in perfect condition although it has not been tuned for a few years.

The church has seen a large number of memorials placed there originally Barraba Community News Wednesday 30°" June 2021 when the church was built and added to over the years. The reredos memorial to Frederick Capel comes to mind as it matches the altar perfectly with thanks to Charles Mason who sat down and drew the pattern on the altar freehand — photography was not what it is today. There is a complete list of memorials in the Cobbadah history which was published in 1975.

There have been many gatherings at the Cobbadah Church over the years - the 50% anniversary, the 70% anniversary and the centenary come to mind and various histories have been put together for each celebration. There was always a Christmas service, often at night in Christmas week, which was followed by a supper in the grounds. The Cobbadah Church has seen a lot of baptisms and there are whole families of children baptized in the Cobbadah Church.

Over the 100 plus years that the Cobbadah Church was functioning, there were several unusual events. The Rev Sol. Wiseman was the vicar for many years- a rather robust gentleman and during the service it was noticed that he kept adjusting his clothing around his waistline. After the service was over the vicar’s warden asked if he was feeling alright and was very surprised to hear the vicar say that his hen had hatched chickens overnight and refused to care for them so he had them in his clothing to keep them warm!

On several occasions the resident wood lizards would appear in the church through a crack in the floor near the organ or under the vestry door. They were not fazed by the congregation and occasionally made their way down the aisle when it was relatively quiet.

Elsie Capel was living alone for many years at Piedmont and had a driver who brought her to church every month, sitting in the car waiting to take her home after the service. She thought there was a lack of shade around the church when the native trees were removed and so she donated two oak trees to be planted in the church yard. The trees were tortured by the 1965 drought and only survived because May Randell watered them regularly — sadly the recent drought has claimed one but the other provides good shade after 50 years.

In the days before the Horton road was altered the church was on a rarely graded dirt track and the vicar of the day conducted services in the Horton church and the Cobbadah church on the same day. After spending too much time at the Horton, he raced up the road to Cobbadah and managed to turn off onto the church track at great speed, pulling up in a cloud of dust amongst the parishioners’ cars — everyone was waiting for the day when he missed the turn and continued down to the hotel!