WEALTH OF HISTORI IN TINY CHURCH

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 12

WEALTH OF HISTOR I IN TINY CHURCH

(By

PHYLLIS KERR)

The “ancient and honourable” has a proud place in the little district of Pleasant Valley, for the tiny church there (illustrated) is a strong link with the early days of a busy sawmilling village.

In my imagination 1 heard the gentle irregular ringing of a hand bell and saw a congregation replying to its call—some on foot, some on horseback; and a wagon-load of crinolined ladies, men in top hats and children coming slowly nearer, the team of plodding bullocks in front raising a cloud of dust along the track. For the firm faith of their fathers had come with the first settlers to this district. It was a much more important centre then than its now-flourishing neighbour, Geraldine. It had the only store for miles, and it had a blacksmith’s shop. Those who worship at St Anne’s, and those who have ancestral bonds with the church, are determined that their holy place shall stand as long as its leaning walls will allow. It is certainlyshowing some signs of its 111 years of constant use in the Christchurch Diocese; but it is the onlychurch in South Canterbury to have this proud record.

For in that diocese in 1862 the Reverend Laurence Lawson Brown was appointed to the pastoral district of Orari, a huge area of bush and tussock and hill and plain, of which Pleasant Valley was a part. His offices were varied; he preached, he married and baptised and advised medication of the sick, and 1 read in a letter of that time “he vaccinated Katie and me.”

For more than a year the Rev. Brown's parishioners met to worship in homestead and woolshed and even in a clearing under a totara, always hoping for a church. His stipend was a lean one, and to bring a few shillings to the household coffers of his home in Geraldine, the minister boarded and taught three boys there, in what was the first “school” in the pastoral district.

Then on New Year’s Day, 1863, John Hardcastle came to a farm in the valley and made the home he called "Castlewood” in a district whose lifeblood came from the milling of the native bush, until such time as “the rape of the forest” was everywhere sensibly halted.

Hardcastle had the same idea as Parson Brown, and they set themselves the task of building a church. Mr William Crale.

another new settler, gave the use of the half-acre of Crown land, and some of his bush was milled free of charge by expert hands for Huffey and Young to begin building on the plans drawn up by Belfield Woollcombe. resident magistrate in Timaru. The church property trustees became the owners of the land when it was transferred to them by the second owner, Julius Mendelson, in 1878. The carpenters' services were freely given too; Young, an Anglican, lived in the valley, but Huffey. a Methodist, walked each day over the hill from a room in the original buildings on .Macdonald’s Waitui run. Men of all denominations gave bullocks, waggons, and bare hands for the cause. Parson’s Mile Mr Cox, who represented the district on the Provincial Council, persuaded his colleagues to give $2OO to the funds, and from their patrimony, large and small, the valley people gave a sufficient sum to complete the church. They named it after their parson’s wife. Anne Grey Brown.

The high-pitched roof was shingled with totara.

and the wide floorboards were matai. the six-inch by two-inch sluds and the weather boards kahikaiea. Today we marvel at the cob of clay and tussock, still intact, with which they filled the spaces between the studs. Its natural colour still gives a warm look, and the latticed windows on each side of the nave and above the altar filtered sunlight through the little church. It was a gay district. Parishioners celebrated the opening in 1863 with a dance in their new building. Years later, as a memorial gift from the parishioner, a. beautiful stainedglass window took the place of the latticed glass behind the altar. The marble font was brought from England by a pioneer settler of the valley over

the hill; and gifts o! .1 cop per reredos and ra--tablets were memo::,i - were the carted r< ad-.ng desk, altar rails and > dence table. The i-mgrega tions were, and s; justly proud of the se-y chalice, and a chu-> t be? ringing from a belfry sends its message much : irther down the valley tha;: did the little hand bell. Parson Brown- Bo of Common Prayer p- nted n 1862, and his Bible. p: med only a few months before the church wa- built, hat been used there over the years. Their original shnnhas dimmed just a . tti, but they remain the Ho Books of St Anne's. It is a revered place, but there are quaint stories of its nasi: Appalled by th, realisation of his nett re snonsibility. a bridegroom fainted. With great pres ence of mind a guest doused him with the con tents of the altar vase. He got to his feet drenched and bedecked, and the vicai continued the nuptials. None thought of absent ing themselves from the Sunday afternoon service-, according to a letter I read from one whose complaintto her father of a badtoothache fell on deaf eat .

And there uas "snow to the foot of the hills.” she wrote, “and the sun getting low, the long trudge home brought stinging noses and ears.” A little cottage beside the church is a holidayhome for tired Sisters of the Community of the Sacred Name in Christchurch. The story goes that a family with a dozen children once lived there. Their noise at play — and they couldn't be persuaded l<. join the congregation — disturbed the worshippers. A beneficient parishioner bought the house for the use of the Sisters, and eventually bequeathed it tc their Community. She had found a home for the family further up the valley, and St Anne's services continued peacefully