Their places of worship, the schools of their education and the streets they walked.

“You can’t really talk about a people and you can’t know a people, in the mid to late 19th century, without understanding the churches and their faith ... that’s really what it boils down to,” historian Michael Belcher said.

In their first walk for 2014, The Friends of Grossmann House will host a pilgrimage around the city’s schools and churches.

The walk is also part of the National Trust Heritage Festival, this year themed Journeys.

“This pilgrimage through this little precinct of Maitland’s churches and schools fits in very well with this theme because for a lot of Maitland’s religious communities it was a journey coming here to Australia,” Friends of Grossmann House member Holly McNamee said. 

“And what’s interesting is that these buildings are all still here and serving their original purpose.”

Mr Belcher and fellow historian Wayne Campbell will guide the walk, which will include visits to All Saints College, St Mary’s Campus, St John’s Primary School, the cathedral precinct and the Maitland Uniting Church.

“Because of the compactness of Horseshoe Bend, central Maitland and south Maitland you have a huge diversity of churches and schools within a very small area with lots of denominations. It’s a microcosm of Australian society at the time,” Mr Belcher said.

“And the first thing people did when they arrived in a place was build a church because it was essential for the proper organisation of society. 

“People needed rules and they needed governance.”

The walk will leave from the Maitland City Council car park at 2pm and end at Brough House, Church Street, Maitland, at 4pm, on April 27. 

For more information phone Ms McNamee on 4934 4314.