 In 1842 Sparke and his wife Mary, with the approval of Robert Scott the mortgagee, sold Bishop Broughton four acres "on which a Parsonage House is now built", commencing at the north east corner of the Township of Upper Hexham, for £100, "for erection and completion of Parsonage".A church, named St Stephens, was opened in Tarro around 1849.This rustic structure, was replaced by a more elegant wooden building in 1905.