Donovan’s World

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

ST. MARTIN’S, DUNTROON

 
Despite it being late spring, the inside of St Martin’s, Duntroon was cold as charity, its fabric stark and undecorated. Outside was much warmer, the Oamaru stone butter-toned and paint-box friendly.

The church, named after one similar in Duntroon, Scotland, was financed by a bequest from Emily Campbell according to the wish of her late husband, Robert, an early settler.
Thomas Cane was the architect and John Menzies, of Maheno, the mason builder. It was consecrated in 1901.

There’s something oddly personal here: my grandmother was a Campbell, and her husband, Robert, was a stonemason. No connexion of course, the world is full of Campbells - and masons - but the clan’s coat of arms on one side of the church door is, for me, strangely meaningful.

© DON DONOVAN  

donovan@ihug.co.nz

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

ST. AUGUSTINE’S, WAIMATE

On past visits to Waimate I had found it impossible to get a full look at St Augustine’s but I was fortunate this time, somebody had been tree felling, leaving the complex shapes of campanile, church and lych gate nicely revealed.

B. W. Mountfort designed the heart of the church, which was built in 1872 by Gaitt & Dickison for £350.

The 1880 lantern tower, made of kahikatea, was designed by Reverend C. Coates and when surveyed in 1919 was expected to last only another two years!

The lych gate dates from 1902 and the elegant campanile from 1903; both are memorials to members of the Studholme family of  ‘Te Waimate’.

Quite some fuss is made of two Pre-Raphaelite stained-glass windows from Morris & Company, associated with Sir Edward Burne-Jones. I far prefer the church and its buildings and relished painting them.

© DON DONOVAN  

donovan@ihug.co.nz

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

 
‘Weighty limestone, on hill above Otaio River, course of which marked by vernal green poplars and willows.’ (NOTEBOOK, SUNDAY 4/11/2001)

A notice board outside St Mary’s, Otaio, reads that services are conducted on the first Sunday of the month at 10.00 am. I arrived at 10.00 and stayed until after 10.30 but there was no sign of life. That is the state of so many country churches - little evidence of priest or congregation.

But the church was not built with the principal intention of serving a needy community; it was Charles Meyer’s memorial to his wife, Ellen, who died in 1877. Within a few months he, owner of Blue Cliffs Station, also died but architect Benjamin Mountfort’s plans proceeded and the church - by then also a memorial to Meyer - was consecrated in June 1880.

The butterscotch limestone, from Cave in South Canterbury, looks as fresh as if it were newly quarried but corrugated iron has replaced the original slate roof. There is no external foundation stone but at the gate a plaque reads ‘In Memory of Past Parishioners 1880-1960′.

© DON DONOVAN 
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

ST. DAVID’S, CAVE, South Canterbury

I’ve photographed St. David’s Memorial Church, Cave, 35 km west of Timaru, many times but this was the first time I had painted it. It’s a difficult subject, the riverbed stones in its walls demand artistic trickery!

It was built in 1930, very much for the same reason as the Church of the Good Shepherd at Tekapo (see 101): to honour the pioneers of its district, particularly the Burnett family.

As with the Tekapo church, in a thousand years when archaeologists and pilgrims go in search of ancient relics, St. David’s will still be there. It has the lasting qualities of the Celtic and Saxon churches of Britain. Its design, not surprisingly, won for Herbert Hall the New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal for 1934.

Inside, I was moved by its simplicity, intimacy and stillness: the warm nutty tones of the timberwork, the jewel-like brilliance of the stained glass, and the subtle greys and tans of the stones, so dryly redolent of Canterbury’s summertime riverbeds.

© DON DONOVAN
  
donovan@ihug.co.nz

 
I sat in my car for a long time contemplating the Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo. It came to me that if separated from its usual visual cliché (the one on the lake promontory with a foreground of purple, mauve and magenta lupins) it took on a rare Celtic simplicity. The rain helped, of course.

Its foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Gloucester in 1935 and it was finished later that year as a memorial to the settlers and shepherds whose sheep ranged across wild Mackenzie Country.
 
Under the direction of the builder Mr Rodman (whose wedding to Miss Trott, a local woman, was the first in the new church), Mr Miller, the stonemason, used undressed lakeside boulders to give form to the plans of architect, Richard Harman. The roof was originally of totara shingles but when the time came to re-roof an improvement was made by cladding with slate - totally appropriate in this setting.

© DON DONOVAN 
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

 
I have always loved the country around Geraldine, and Pleasant Valley - so well named - is some of the best of it.

St Anne’s, with its lichen-stoned graveyard is the archetypal New Zealand country church. Its interior is tiny and intimate with a ‘primitive-style’ east window.

The church was built in 1863 by John Huffey (a Methodist) and WilliamYoung, to the design of Lieutenant Belfield Woollcombe of Timaru.

Pleasant Valley was native bush then but its timber was largely worked out by 1885, leaving a shrunken congregation and a church in a sorry state. Its history since then has been one of successive disrepair, despair and repair but thankfully it has survived and is now protected by the Historic Places Trust. The Trust rates it as the most important of the early churches in the local area because it is the only example left of pit-sawn or adzed timber and cob construction.

© DON DONOVAN
  
donovan@ihug.co.nz

From the standpoint of the twenty-first century it’s hard to imagine that one family could finance the construction of such a superb church. But that is exactly what John Acland did to serve the spiritual needs of his Mount Peel station’s menmbers and servants.

He gave the land in 1866; his wife, Emily, laid the foundation stone in 1868, and the Church of The Holy Innocents was consecrated one year later by the bishop of Christchurch.

Poignantly, it was named for four children already buried in the churchyard. Designed by a Mr Ashworth of Exeter, it was built of Mt Somers stone and Rangitata River greywacke by William Brassington of Christchurch.

Inside, dark black pine and totara timbers are offset by some fine stained glass. There are always fresh cut flowers from the estate, which is still in the ownership and care of the Acland family.

© DON DONOVAN
  
donovan@ihug.co.nz

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

Not far from Mt Peel, (see 99, Church of the Holy Innocents) and also in the valley of the Rangitata River, is St Stephen’s Church, Peel Forest.
 
It was built for £272 by Nelson & Coutts of Ashburton in 1885, replacing an earlier church that had blown down in a ‘whirlwind’.
 
The bell tower, which I particularly like, was added in 1915 at the same time as the ‘lean-to’ vestry on the west front of the church.

There’s enough money in a kitty given by bequest for the church to be replaced by a stone one but local parishioners have decided to stick with what they know and love.

© DON DONOVAN 
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz

 
‘Wet day. Tourists’ coach pulls up; a man and woman get out while others watch them from windows. They run to church, pan and tilt with video cameras, nod to each other and run back to coach which roars away leaving a blue cloud of exhaust. Five minutes flat! Another tick on the schedule.’ (SKETCHBOOK NOTE 2/11/01)

Built from locally quarried stone, and standing with great dignity in its garden of old English trees and emerald lawns, St Paul’s complements the quiet comfort of Tai Tapu perfectly.

It was built in 1930 on the site of an 1876 wooden church. The base of the sundial on the lawn in front is the font from that old church and stands on the spot it originally occupied.

The ‘new’ church, designed by Cecil Wood of Christchurch (who was responsible for the original designs of Wellington Cathedral), was erected by Sir Robert Heaton-Rhodes in memory of his wife Jessie and presented as a gift to the people of the district.

© DON DONOVAN
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz