Bishop Kathryn Otley travelled to Parish of the Lower Valley to take part in the worship service with incumbent, the Rev. Felix Longdon.  Five candidates were confirmed and one adult was formally accepted as a member of the parish.

The Rev. William Byers (retired), who grew up in the parish, wrote a 200-page history of the church titled The Church on the Hill when it celebrated its 135th anniversary in 1981, researched with a small team of volunteers from the church. The congregation sold the books for $9.95 each, and the proceeds funded a roof replacement for the church. At that time, there were about 120 families in the congregation.

Byers shared some highlights from Holy Trinity’s history:

When the church first opened its doors in 1846, Byers said it was quite a plain building with wide windows, but the over the years many features were added, including buttresses and a spire. The windows were changed to lancet windows with stained glass, and the entrance to the church was moved to one side of the building.

Many of the stained-glass windows are memorials to members of prominent families in the parish— the Hamiltons, the Higginsons, and the Byers (the author has deep roots in the diocese.)

In 1808, the Hamilton family, an Anglo-Irish family of means came to Hawkesbury and took over the fledgling mills and gradually built them up to a point where they were reputed to be the largest mills in the British Empire. The white pine of the Ottawa valley and the Laurentians was in demand and shipped abroad.

Charles Hamilton, from that prominent family, became the first Anglican Bishop of Ottawa.

The Hamiltons had a very significant influence. The second priest to serve at Holy Trinity was a young Irishman by the name of John Travers Lewis. He was that Holy Trinity from 1850 to 1854. He became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Ontario in Kingston.

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