While Hughes was an assistant priest at St Peter's (1894-1900), he tried to enthuse other Melbourne Anglicans with the possibility of creating a parish school system – basically, a network of low fee schools similar to Roman Catholic parish schools. In 1898, he established such a school at St Peter's, which functioned until the great Depression, closing at the end of 1930.

The Flowers of the Forest was produced at least thirty times by the school head, George Carter. Most of the roles were taken from British folk tradition: Robin Hood and his merry men, the Miller of Dee, 'whose men were apparently just fresh from the work of filling flour sacks', Tam O'Shanter, Black-Eyed Susan and the Lass of Richmond Hill. In 1916, the parish paper commented:

Roy Williams greatly pleased the audience by his fine representation of the part of Wandering Willie, and his evident interest in his little friends the Village Pets, who are afterwards discovered to be the mystic "Flowers of the Forest".

The mind boggles.