St Patrick's Basilica is a church in

Waimate Waimate is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand, and the seat of Waimate District. It is situated just inland from the eastern coast of the South Island. The town is reached via a short detour west when travelling on State Highway One, the main N ...

in New Zealand's

Canterbury Region Canterbury () is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of , making it the largest region in the country by area. It is home to a population of The region in its current form was estab ...

, known for its style of architecture. It is an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

- Romanesque style with an arcaded

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

, and the tower is impressively louvred. The church was built in 1908–1909, with the tower added in 1912. The basilica is listed by

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 ...

as a Historic Place, Category 1. The basilica was built to a design by Francis William Petre and has been described as his most original work. The church was designed to seat 600 people. It is constructed of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

reinforced with

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

hoops in some parts and with

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

bands and rods in others, covered by

faces The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect the ...

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

, and Oamaru stone is used in

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

, mouldings and for facing some walls. Inside the church, there is a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

, a

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

and a notable

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 ...

window.

Tower and bells

The tower was included in Petre's original design but was not built until 1912, when sufficient funds had been raised for its construction. The tower is 45ft high, reaching 93ft above ground level. At the top of the tower is an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

-clad

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

and a

cross A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...

. The tower holds a

peal In campanology (bell ringing), a peal is the special name given to a specific type of performance of change ringing which meets certain exacting conditions for duration, complexity and quality. The definition of a peal has changed considerably ...

of three bells donated by Nicholas Quinn of Makikihi, who left £400 for the bells and other "church purposes" in his 1902 will. Quinn died in 1903 and there is a

memorial tablet A spirit tablet, memorial tablet, or ancestral tablet is a placard that people used to designate the seat of a deity or past ancestor as well as to enclose it. The name of the deity or the past ancestor is usually inscribed onto the tablet. Wit ...

to him inside the church. The bells were made by the firm of Farnier Fils, of Velars sur Ouche, France. Farnier Fils was a company that had been making bells for over 200 years, in

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

and Velars sur Ouche. The bells arrived in Waimate on 22 August 1913 and were installed and in use by late September 1913. The largest bell weighs 16 cwt (812 kg), the middle one 9 cwt (457 kg), and the smallest 6 cwt (304 kg).

Windows

There is a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

14 ft (4.2 m) wide above the main entrance. More

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows were added to the church as funds allowed. In 1922 three windows were installed by the altar in the sanctuary. They were donated by Mrs. Craighead (“Sacred Heart”), Mrs. Harris (“Blessed Virgin”), and Mr. John Foley (“St. Joseph”). Four more stained glass windows were added later.

Altar

The original altar in the church was installed in 1921. It was made of Italian, American and Australian marble, and New Zealand Greenstone. Above the altar was a

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

or dome of white marble supported by greenstone

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s. Most of the altar was removed during alterations in 1972. During restoration of the church in 2005 – 2009, parts of the original

altar rail The altar rail (also known as a communion rail or chancel rail) is a low barrier, sometimes ornate and usually made of stone, wood or metal in some combination, delimiting the chancel or the sanctuary and altar in a church, from the nave and ot ...

s were found under the floor and rebuilt into side altar rails. The new altar in the church comes from Lewisham Hospital (later Calvary Hospital) in Christchurch.

Organ

The church has a pipe organ built by Arthur Adrian Hobday (son of Arthur Hobday of Hobday and Sons, Wellington) and paid for by parishioners Patrick and Mrs Hanley from Morven. The organ was commissioned in 1915 but progress was delayed by the

First World War 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 the organ was not opened until September 1920. It is possibly the last organ built by A. A. Hobday. The organ was originally powered by a

hydraulic Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

system but this was replaced with an electric blower in 1921. The organ was restored in 1996. The organ was named 'Hannah'.

Restoration

In 1972 the parish priest organised a variety of alterations to the church interior. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

was removed, most of the altar was taken out, statues were removed or painted white, various objects were removed from the church and the interior was painted grey. Many of these changes were reversed in a major restoration of the church that began in 2005, in a project lasting several years and managed by the St Patrick's Restoration Trust. Work included a new tiled roof, connecting the framing of the roof to the surrounding walls, bracing the tower, cleaning and repairing the exterior of the building, and restoration, painting and new lighting inside the church. The restoration cost $600,000. A third of the cost was paid by the Lottery Grants Board, and other charities including the Lion Foundation contributed to the project.

References