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.

Christ Church is now sadly marooned in a graffiti-scrawled factory suburb. It was, when it was built in 1853, a typical country church even though only a short trip from Wellington.

In the late 1940s the new railway line laid along the eastern Hutt Valley divided Taita’s Anglican community from its church and precipitated its decline through isolation.

Its design was probably the work of Octavius Bousefield, a draughtsman in the Government Surveyor’s office. Careful restoration inside and out followed a serious fire in 1989.

In the churchyard I discovered the grave of Frederick de Jersey Clere, whose works feature so prominently in this book. His severe gravestone hardly celebrates his talent, but, of course, his many churches do. It seems ironic that he is not within the precinct of one of his own creations.

© DON DONOVAN  

donovan@ihug.co.nz

Work began on St Thomas’s at Sanson in April 1877. It should have started earlier but the contractor, whose lowest bid of £588 had been accepted, failed to show up.

So the committee stumped up an extra £2 for the Ellerm brothers, Fred and Bert, who had the job done in time for Bishop Hadfield to consecrate the church in November of that year.

Remarkably, totara pegs and dowels rather than nails hold it all together.

The architect was Charles Tringham (he also designed All Saints, Foxton) who later gave up architecture for sheep farming in the Wairarapa.

Although the building, being mid-Victorian Gothic with tower, apse and sanctuary, appears somewhat more elaborate than most of my country churches it nevertheless was designed to hold a congregation of only 120.

© 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.

My painting gives no hint of the passing showers on that day when, outside St Martin’s, Greatford, I met the great grandson of Major William Jarvis Willis who donated the land and retained the designer, Frederick de Jersey Clere.

J. and A. Broadbelt built the church.

It opened on 30 July 1882, but it wasn’t consecrated until 1885 as Bishop Hadfield had refused his blessing because Willis had married Eliza Piddiford, sister of his deceased wife, Amelia. (Such a union was against New Zealand law so they’d done the deed in Australia.)

Only after Willis’s death in 1884 did the Bishop, having given his pique with the Major precedence over the spiritual needs of the rest of its congregation, sanctify the building.

© 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. PAUL’S, CHELTENHAM  

A sister church to St Mary’s at Beaconsfield, Clere & Swan’s St Paul’s in Cheltenham was built in 1904.

Its once triumphant belfry still holds its head high. Sadly the church was deconsecrated for lack of support on 25 March 2001 and, at the time I made my drawing, was up for tender.

© 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.

At first I almost ruled it out because it seemed too simple. But the day was perfect and the church shimmered in blinding sunlight. And that little belfry - if you can call it that - has a special merit.

St Francis of Assisi is on the road from Masterton to Bideford a hamlet whose name was changed from Upper Taueru by an expatriate Devonian minister. It was built in 1875 of pit-sawn, adzed pine with totara shingles (they’re still there, under the iron) by locals, under the direction of an immigrant German tradesman, Emil Grapengetor.

© DON DONOVAN
 
donovan@ihug.co.nz

‘Locked. Plaque reads “Historic Places Trust Building No.1036.” Lovely church. Well-weathered shingles. Magnificent bell tower. No visible graves, but very old oaks in churchyard. I sat in their cool dapple and had lunch occasionally hearing heavy footsteps from invisible feet, not realizing - until one fell on my head - that they were acorns dropping! Underfoot they were plentiful and crunchy Eeyore would have loved them. Slightly crooked drawing, but it catches the right spirit.’

(FROM MY NOTEBOOK 25/3/01)

The first part of this Victorian Free Gothic church was built in 1858-59 modelled on the lines of Christ Church at Russell. The sanctuary was added in 1881 followed by both transepts and vestry in 1893.

The oak trees were planted from acorns brought back by Archdeacon Samuel Williams from England well over 100 years ago.

© 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.

Anglican St Luke’s, Havelock North is a bit grand to include in a book on country churches but, when it was built in 1874, it was much smaller and there was little more than a handful of houses and shops, a pub, two blacksmiths, a school and about 400 people living in the surrounding district.

There have since been many additions and alterations to the original church (designed by architect Thomas Cooper of Napier) but the latest - the tower - is most striking. Tall, imposing, monumental, it was built in 1998 and designed by the distinguished architect Sir Miles Warren of Christchurch.

© DON DONOVAN
  
donovan@ihug.co.nz

Over several years I have drawn and re-drawn Holy Trinity, Pakaraka.

My first effort had it with a blue iron roof. Then it was re-shingled and I painted it again. On 12 April 2001 a replica steeple was finished to make it externally exactly the same as the original which opened on 28 November 1873 on the site of a previous church built in 1851, so I made this final rendering

I imagine architect Richard Keals would think the restoration flattering, but for a church well into its second century it looks too fresh, too new. Once a patina of age has stained its shingles all will be well. Reverend Henry Williams, the pioneer missionary of Paihia, and his wife, Marianne, are buried side by side beneath two brown-lichened stones within a wrought iron enclosure below the east window.

© DON DONOVAN  

donovan@ihug.co.nz