Saint George’s Chapel of Ease, Gore’s Landing.
The original St. George’s Anglican Church was erected in 1847. The first service was held on January 1, 1848. Archdeacon Bethune from Cobourg conducted the Communion Service. Thomas and Catharine Traill and their family were among those in attendance. In 1867, the Rev. Archibald Lampman arrived as rector and his incumbency lasted for seven years. By the end of the century the fifty-year-old church was deteriorating and no longer safe.
The present church was built in 1908. Stones gathered from nearby fields by the men of the church helped to keep down the cost of rebuilding. Its gothic design is based on that made by J.A. Ellis, a Toronto Architect. Gerald Hayward designed the tower which would house a large bell donated by St. Peter’s Church, Cobourg.
Special features of the Chapel include Art Nouveau stained glass side windows, the buttressed and crenellated tower and carved stone Celtic crosses on the roof gables. Inside, the oak pews, choir stalls, Bishop’s chair and other furniture are crafted in the gothic style ornamented with quatre-foil tablet flowers. The ceiling is outlined with beamed, wooden arches. In the foyer hangs one of the oil lamps given by Gerald Hayward, the famous painter.
St. George’s Cemetery surrounds the church on three sides and is beautifully kept. From here one can look north over Rice Lake. The cemetery has woodlots to the east, south and west. Many prominent Canadians are buried here as well as Henry Atwood the three-year-old grandson of Catherine Parr Traill.
In the graveyard is an unmarked mass grave of men who died of cholera while building the Cobourg to Peterborough Railroad. Graves of early Irish immigrants who died of typhus on their way to the back townships in 1847 also remain unmarked.
St. George’s has been a member of the three-point Parish of Perrytown which included St. Paul’s, Perrytown and St. Anne’s, Bewdley. In the spring of 2011, the wardens of the Parish of Perrytown determined that it was no longer financially possible to keep the three churches open. St. Anne’s joined St. Paul’s. As St. George’s explored other options, Bishop Linda Nicholls suggested the only way to keep it open was to become a Chapel of Ease under the sponsorship of St. Peter’s Church in Cobourg. Negotiations went on all during the summer months. On Sept. 22, 2011, St. George’s officially became a Chapel of Ease under the sponsorship of St. Peter’s Church in Cobourg. This is, historically, the only Chapel of Ease in the Diocese of Toronto.
And so, it has come full circle from Archbishop Bethune of St. Peter’s preaching the first sermon at St. George’s in 1848, their gift of a bell for the tower of the new church in 1908 and the “Chapel” now being kept open under the sponsorship of St. Peter’s Church.