St James' Anglican Church, Morpeth, Anglican church in Morpeth, Australia

St James' Anglican Church stands at 19 Tank Street in Morpeth, on land Edward Charles Close donated at the High and Tank Street intersection after the 1834 subdivision. The precinct groups the church with its rectory and a former parish schoolhouse that became the parish hall. Close paid for the church and schoolhouse and part of the rectory, and the 1841 sketch by Conrad Martens shows the group as the entry point of the new town.

Edward Charles Close donated land on both sides of the High and Tank Street intersection after the first subdivision of Morpeth in 1834, and paid for the church himself. The building was erected between 1837 and 1875 by Close and James Sherwood, with later additions by Edmund Blacket and John Horbury Hunt. The precinct was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 27 January 2017.

The Wonnarua knew the Morpeth area as Illulong, Illalaung or Illullaung, and possibly called the river Coonanbarra. Edward Charles Close paid for the church and parish schoolhouse after the first subdivision of his private town in 1834, while the rectory was partly funded by him. The former parish schoolhouse, closed after the government Morpeth National School opened in 1862, became the parish hall.

The precinct stands at 19 Tank Street, at the corner with High Street, on the east-west ridge above the Hunter River. The church, rectory and former schoolhouse now used as parish hall sit together, so the whole group can be read from the street. Morpeth is about 29 river miles from Newcastle.

The church precinct also includes the rectory and a parish hall that began as the parish schoolhouse. Close paid for the church and schoolhouse himself, while the rectory was only partly funded by him, and the school closed after the government-sponsored Morpeth National School opened in 1862.