Walkerville

Walkerville offers travelers interested in local history two specific points of interest: St Andrew’s Anglican Church on Church Terrace and the Walkerville Wesleyan Cemetery on Smith Street. The church represents the town’s early Anglican history; with its burials, the cemetery offers a glimpse of the early settler community and documents the life of the local community. Together, they offer different perspectives on Walkerville: a denominational architectural history and a community history rooted in burials and local life.

Church History in Walkerville

St Andrew’s Anglican Church was built in 1847 and was the first Anglican church in Walkerville. This distinction places the church within the town’s early Anglican history. For you, it offers a clear point of reference if you are interested in Walkerville’s religious history: the year it was built marks a church that was the first of its denomination in the town. The statement therefore relates specifically to Walkerville’s Anglican history.

The Walkerville Wesleyan Cemetery

There are 3,785 burials at the Walkerville Wesleyan Cemetery. They offer a glimpse of the early local settler community and document the life of the local community. In this way, the cemetery connects individual burials with a view of community life in the district. It therefore stands alongside church history as part of local history, while focusing on a different aspect.

The Trustees of the Walkerville Wesleyan Church purchased the cemetery grounds on May 8, 1849, for 12 pounds. The date, amount, and purchaser make this early purchase of the land a specific step in the cemetery’s history. It should be distinguished from the later transfer of control: the purchase concerned the land, while a change in administration followed in 1972.

Historically, a rule allowed members of other denominations access to the cemetery. However, most of the burials were from the Wesleyan Church. Taken together, these two aspects show that the access rule included members of other denominations, while most burials were associated with the Wesleyan Church. The cemetery thus reflects the district’s earlier settler community.

In 1972, control of the Walkerville Wesleyan Cemetery passed to the Town of Walkerville. Since then, the Town, with support from the Wesleyan Cemetery Advisory Committee, has overseen the preservation of the cemetery and its surviving records. The preservation effort therefore covers both the cemetery and its associated records. Alongside the history of the burials and the land, the site’s history also includes how it and its surviving documents have been cared for.

A Historical Focus for Your Travel Decision

If you are considering Walkerville as a travel destination while looking for a hotel, you can take local history into account as one possible focus for your choice. The town’s Anglican church history and the community history of the Wesleyan Cemetery offer different points of interest for travelers interested in a place’s past. The key dates help put these subjects in context: they relate to the construction of the church, the purchase of the cemetery grounds, and the later control and preservation of the cemetery.

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