In a country churchyard

Press, 15 February 1986, Page 19

In a country churchyard

Although Samuel Farr, architect of The Church of St John the Evangelist in Leeston, was a strong nonconformist, he was willing to include many typically Anglican features in this attractive timber church.

Some mystery surrounds the choice of Farr as the church architect in 1872 when the renowned Canterbury architect, Benjamin Mountfort, was designing most Church of England buildings in the province.

Historical analysis suggests that the choice of Farr may have been in response to Mountfort’s high principled architecture and High Church faith. These may have been unacceptable to Leeston parishioners. v. ¥

Farr’s design was in line with colonial adaptations of ecclesiologists’ principles at the time. The long low proportions of the church, the definition of its separate parts and Gothic details were similar to those found in Mountfort’s designs.

For £287 the church was completed on a one-acre section in Leeston’s main street It was aligned with the clearly defined chancel facing eastwards, a small projecting entrance porch on the south side, a northern vestry and a western belfry. In the chancel the triple grouping of lancet windows is symbolic of the Trinity. Single diamond-paned lancet windows were spaced around the church r

and an oval-shaped ventilator was added high up in the western gable. Inside, the central aisle is finished in wainscot and the ceiling built with diagonal boarding and angled braces. The lectern, prayer desk, altar and communion rails of kauri with Gothic ornamentation may also have been to Farr’s design.

The Ellesmere district had few settlers before 1862 and the Rev. H. W. Harper, who was the vicar for the district from 1858 to 1864, held occasional services in woolsheds and houses. The Rev. W. J. G. Bluett became the first vicar for the Ellesmere parish, and Leeston services were held in a room that became part of

the chemist’s shop. In 1878 the St John the Evangelist Church was enlarged and in 1889 when the Ellesmere Parish divided, the church became part of the Leeston Parish. Leeston, the main town in the Ellesmere district, was named by an early pioneer, Mr Smith, after the hamlet of Leeston in Somerset, England. Around the turn of the century stock sales took place every two weeks and Leeston was renowned as having one of the finest country hotels in New Zealand. At that time Leeston had its own courthouse and a fine cycle track. Mr Robert Heaton Rhodes was first elected as member of Parliament for Ellesmere in

1899, defeating Mr W. G. Montgomery.

Miss Hewland of Bickley, Kent, presented the church with a bible in 1913. The vicarage was built in 1924 and the first parish magazine published in 1947. Mr and Mrs A. W. Hurford presented a new bible to the church in 1954, replacing the old worn one. Among the gifts presented to the church in 1956 were a prayer desk from Mr and Mrs H. C. Free, a brass ewer for the font by Mr and Mrs Mclntyre and a visitors’ book by Mr and Mrs B. C. Arthur. During subsequent years many more gifts were presented by parishioners and others. - Tessa Ward