St Peter’s celebrates 130th anniversary

Press, 9 April 1988, Page 37

St Peter’s celebrates 130th anniversary

Once a sleepy rural parish catering for parishioners from the “country” areas of Riccarton and Yaldhurst, St Peter’s Anglican Church, at Church Corner, celebrates its 130th anniversary in the midst of one of the busiest areas in Christchurch. The highlight of the celebrations this weekend will be an organ recital by 1.30 p.m. on Sunday by Reverend Alan Hewson, who grew up in the parish and was a member of the church choir before joining the

Cathedral Choir. It will be the first time the organ has been played since it was renovated specially for the anniversary. According to the convenor of the anniversary celebrations, Miss Audrey Storer, St Peter’s is believed to be the third church to have been built in Canterbury. The site has become a much loved landmark in Christchurch, and the headstones round it show such familiar names as Pyne, Gould and Guinness, Ballantyne and

Maude (Nurse Maude), according to the pastor, Reverend Malcolm May. The building itself was originally a wooden church, built in 1856, and extended in 1860. In 1876 the wooden chancel and sanctuary were removed and replaced by a permanent stone chancel. According to Reverend May, Benjamin Mountfort, who helped revive Gothic architecture in Christchurch by designing the Provincial Council Buildings in Durham Street, designed the stone structure of St Peter’s.