Donovan’s World

I drew the bell tower of the Presbyterian Church, Oturehua because I was fascinated by its leaning cross. Could a magpie have flown into it? Or a top-dressing aircraft? Maybe some local schoolboy had taken a pot shot at it with his .22?

When I asked why, I was told: ‘The short answer is that the cross leans over because all attempts to straighten it have so far been unsuccessful…’

Perhaps, as the residents of Pisa discovered long ago, there might be some tourism value in leaving it as it is.

© DON DONOVAN
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz

I haven’t seen anything else like this on my travels: a quaint, semi-detached porch with its own steep pyramidal roof which is more interesting in shape than the church itself. It gives access to St George’s, Naseby, built in 1875.

While plain and simple, the church, like its porch, is most unusual. Its construction is neither of stone nor timber but a unique mud brick called ‘Jacob’s Mixture’, which is more clay than cement. It was dreamed up by Mr W. Jacob who not only built the church - for £761 - but also made its furniture.

© 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 like the simple symmetry of St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church at Clyde, and somehow the unassuming wire gate that guards the narrow, rose-lined path adds to its appeal.

The schist stones are sandier than those of St. James’s’ Roxburgh (see 123) and mimic the surrounding hills.

Dunstan was Clyde’s first name. Its oldest buildings date from the aftermath of a huge storm in 1863 that destroyed the canvas town and the earlier Catholic church that had grown in this rich roughhouse of a goldfield.

This St. Dunstan’s, with its Marseilles-tiled roof, was designed by Francis William Petre (see also 117, St Patrick’s, Lawrence) and built by Thomas Wilkinson and stonemason John Holloway. It was opened on Sunday 18 October 1903, by which time Clyde was thoroughly respectable.

© 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 JAMES’S, ROXBURGH

Maori hunted moa in these parts long before prospectors found gold, before the soil and climate were found to produce superior peaches and apricots, or before the Clutha River was dammed for its power.

Somewhere in that bunched up history, Christianity came to the area that started life as Teviot.

In 1871 an Anglican building committee was formed and a site was offered. Tenders were let, the stone was quarried from a stone’s throw away, and St James’s was opened on 11 November 1872, having cost £881.

Its mellow stones - dressed and assembled by stonemason Peter Campbell - require watercolour washed over oil pastel for the right texture. It was a very satisfying subject to paint.

© DON DONOVAN  

donovan@ihug.co.nz

Winton is a proud little town conscious of its history, and its people are now keen to preserve surviving historic buildings.

They almost lost the picturesque 1876 church, Holy Trinity, but saved it just in time and it has been well maintained since its re-dedication on 20 December 1981.
 
Although there’s little space between its nave and the main street, it can claim to be on its original site. The architect was F. W. Burwell and the builders were Price and Shadrow.

© 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. Mary The Virgin has an extraordinary cross-brace supporting the gable quite unlike anything else in this collection, and I was much impressed by the detail of the side door (below).

McKenzie & Wilson of Invercargill were the architects for this ‘new’ church. It was built by a Mr Peterson on land donated in 1900 by a Mr Mills.

It replaced an 1862 St. Mary’s nearby in which the last service was held on 5 January 1902 and the first in the new church one week later. A centennial service was held here shortly after I visited.

© DON DONOVAN
  
donovan@ihug.co.nz

Apart from Bluff Harbour there’s nothing much between Greenhills Union Church and McMurdo Sound and when the biting south wind comes its old rusticated weatherboard timbers groan like a wooden ship, as they have no doubt groaned since 1886. But it’s sound and unaltered inside and out.

I’ve painted it twice before with great enthusiasm and despite its used appearance it looks better than I remember it.

A Roman Catholic, Mr. S. Sullivan, both gave the land and built the church. It was de-commissioned in March 2001 and handed over to The Greenhills Church Charitable Trust who, I hope, will continue to love it like an old teddy bear.

© 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 could hardly believe that Christ Church at Clifton, south of Invercargill, was built in 1887. It looks new, like a replica, as if it were no older than the adjacent modern suburban houses. But it is, in fact, the oldest remaining wooden church still operating on its original site in Invercargill.

Not so long ago it was in a sorry state and heading for dilapidation but the Historic Places Trust, particularly Maureen Fox and architect Mick Hesselin, rescued it. Over the next six years, until 1999, it was faithfully restored to the design of its original architects, McKenzie & Gilbertson.

It was then re-dedicated for the Cook Islands Christian Community to whom the tiny ex-Anglican church had been given in 1993.

© 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. Mary’s, Stirling (near Balclutha) is almost as original now as it was in 1869, with its pit-sawn heart totara boards and fancy bargeboards.

Simply Gothic, it was designed by William Ferguson ‘a farmer with some training in carpentry’ and stood on Inch Clutha Island until 1904 when it was dismantled, taken across the Clutha River to Stirling, and re-erected with a new iron roof.

In the mid-1960s this inscription was found above the altar: ‘This church was built in August 1869 on Inch Clutha by Robert McKinlay. Shifted to Stirling and rebuilt by John Agnew in January 1905…’

© DON DONOVAN
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz

Across the road from the burned-out ruin (see 116), St. Patrick’s, confident and with an air of prosperity, gleams whitely with aloof dignity and a front door as red as a cardinal’s hat.

Completed in 1892, its foundation stone was laid on St. Patrick’s Day 1891.

Its architect was Francis William Petre (who also designed the magnificent Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch). It replaced an earlier corrugated iron shed set up for the spiritual massage of the numerous Irish Catholic miners and fossickers who had flocked to Gabriel’s Gully for its gold.

© DON DONOVAN
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz