St John's Anglican Church is a heritage-listed

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located at 563 Fergusson Drive, Trentham,

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt () is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. History Upper Hutt is in an area originally known as Orongo ...

, New Zealand. The church is one of the oldest surviving Anglican churches in the

Wellington region Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori language, Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is the southernmost regions of New Zealand, region of the North Island of New Zealand. The local government region covers an area of , and ...

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancest ...

classified it a Category 2 historic building on 6 June 1983.

Early years

The area presently known as Trentham was originally a farm belonging to

Richard Barton Richard Barton (30 August 1790 – 20 August 1866) was the first European resident of Trentham, New Zealand, Trentham, Upper Hutt, in New Zealand. He was born in Newport, Isle of Wight, England. He was a Justice of the peace, Justice of the Pe ...

, who had come to New Zealand from his former position as Superintendent to the

Duke of Sutherland Duke of Sutherland is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which was created by William IV in 1833 for George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford. A series of marriages to heiresses by members of the Leveson-Gower family made ...

's estates in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, England, then known as

Trentham Hall Trentham Estate in the village of Trentham, Staffordshire, England, is a visitor attraction on the southern fringe of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. History The estate was first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. At the time it was a royal ...

. In the 1840s the Bartons settled in Upper Hutt, and their house and estate were named Trentham. The Barton's donated the funds for the land on which St John's church now stands and gave significant support to the construction, including that of a vicarage in 1894. The actual construction of the Church itself was overseen by Rev Frederic Thatcher, who was a noted church architect of the time. The first Vicar was Rev John E. Herring, who visited on 27 December 1861 and performed his first baptism as Vicar on 30 March 1862. Rev Herring's tenure was quite short, and he was succeeded by Rev Amos Knell on 27 September 1863.

was interred in the grounds of St John's Church, and there are also memorials to him in the form of brass plaques within the Church building.

Consecration

The construction of St John's was started in 1861 and finished in 1863, with it being consecrated two years later in 1865. The Rev Thomas Abraham served as a Deacon in charge of the parish from August 1865 to April 1868. By this time, the original central portion of the present church building was completed, but it was not until 17 December 1865 that Bishop Abraham consecrated the building and its church-acre. Originally only the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

of the church existed, but considerable development occurred in the Upper Hutt area, with an increase in settlement encouraged by the railway line, completed through to Upper Hutt in 1876. In 1884 architect

Frederick de Jersey Clere Frederick de Jersey Clere (7 January 1856 – 13 August 1952) was an architect in Wellington, New Zealand. Biography He was born in Walsden, near Todmorden, Lancashire and trained as an architect before emigrating to New Zealand with his famil ...

was commissioned to add on a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

to the church building, and a Vestry added in 1914. However, it proved difficult to retain clergy in the area, and for several periods in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In January 1903, Rev Cecil J Smith arrived at Trentham, and proceeded to re-invigorate the parish and the local area.

Recent years

During the 1950s, growth at St John's was so significant that two major events occurred; the first was the enlargement of the church building by extending the sides, completed in 1955, and the second was the completion of the present Parish hall in the 1960s. The only other change to the building at St John's has been the completion of a foyer in the 1980s, and the more recent replacement of pinex ceilings with gib, completed during 2004.

Churchyard

The churchyard was the earliest European cemetery in the district with people being buried there as soon as the land was consecrated in 1865. The earliest identifiable gravestone is that of Richard Barton, founding father of both church and district. A number of Upper Hutt's early settlers are buried there, altogether over a thousand people. Today it is closed except for ashes interment, but has always been a focus of interest and sometimes curiosity. The churchyard also contains the Commonwealth war graves of three New Zealand soldiers from

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and two from

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Anglican Church, Trentham

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...