St. Mary's Church To Celebrate Its Diamond Jubilee This Month

Chronicle (Levin), 3 September 1949, Page 4

St. Mary's Church To Celebrate Its Diamond Jubilee This Month

Celebrating its diamond jubilee this month is St. Mary's Anglican Church, Leyin. Describing those days before the establishment of the church in its present site, the church publication Parish News states that there were no churches in the area and the only hall was one which had heen built by the mill hands at Bartholomew's mill, close to where Roslyn Road joins the Foxton Road. It was in this hall that the first Anglican service was held by Archdeacon Thomas Fancourt, vicar of Porirua, who in about 1890, came in response to a request from Mr. Stuckey, one of the first settlers' in Levin.' The hall was built of punga, logs and at the time when this first service was held, the roof had not quite been finished. The few Levin v parishioners came by the only highway available — along the railway xraok. A harmonium was Jent hy a negro mill worker, known as« Darky Bennett, and the organisjf for the occasion was Miss Stuckey. This same Miss Stuckey was destined to remain the organist for many years. ' After the service, Archdeacon Fancotirt called on the men to form a cpmmittee to,raisq funds to build a church, and Mr. F. G. Roe was appointed secretary. Under the gui'dance of Mrs. Bartholomew and Mrs.- Stuckey, a ladies' sewing guild was formed and rnany good and enthusiastic workers were found among the mill workers' wives. Mrs. Hanson was discovered to be an excellent machinist and they all worked together with a will. Xt was Archdeacon Fancourt who suggested % the site for the 1 cliurch. At that time it was stand- . jng bush, and Mrs. Horrobin (nee

Ambler) has written to say how, with her sisters, the Butts family, "Grannie" Retter's family and the Hannan's children from the Levin Hotel, she used to swing on the supplejacks where St. Mary's stands today. Nobody knew then how Levin would develop, but it has ' proved a good choice, and the church stands now conveniently near the middle* of the borough. The committee secured the site, and it was\ quickly cleared by voluntary labour. Plans were ' drawn by the Diocesan ar-chitects, Messrs Clere and Clere, of Wellington, and the contract let to Mr. "Spiers, of Foxton. ' By 1897, the church was completed at a total cost of about £300 and the organ installed. This instrument had been the first thing purchased by the guild, and while the church was being erected, was used at services. which were held in a small hall belonging to the Salvation Army, which then stood on the corner of Salisbury and Queen Streets. Later, a town hall was built in Oxford Street and services were held. there until the church was completed. The very first to be iparried in the church was the organist, Miss E. M. Stuckey, who, on March 23, 1898, was married to Mr. R. D., Wallace, of Ohau, by the Rev. R. Young, of . Foxton. Both are still living in t'he oarish. Aprfi 16, 1899. .was a red leter day for Levin, for on that day the Rt. Rev. Frederic Wallis, Bishop of Wellington, came to consecrate St. Mary's, and also conducted the first confirmation in the new church. Nine male and 14 female candidates wero presented.