WORK COMPLETED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 7

WORK COMPLETED

Congregational Church Services Recommence To-morrow Reconstruction work on the Timaru Congregational Church is almost completed, and the building, which several months ago was condemned, has been so restored that permission has been granted for it to be used, and tomorrow the first services in the restored building will be held. Built in 1877, the church has stood the test of time well, and in the opinion of the contractor responsible for the repair and strengthening work, It will be sound for many years to come. Constructed of brick, it has a heavy roof, and that had an effect on the walls, but the construction of solid reinforced buttresses has overcome any need for anxiety on that account. When the building was examined prior to its condemnation, it was thought that many of the wooden joists of the understructure and many of the floor boards and other wooden parts had been so badly affected by borer that the timber would have lost Its solidity and strength. However, a closer examination during the process for treating to exterminate the borer, and make the timbers Immune in future, and the reconstruction work, revealed that the position was not quite so bad as was feared, and that although the borer had done a certain amount of damage to the timber, it had not been sufficiently extensive to affect the soundness of the joists and the main structural parts. It was also found that far fewer of the understructure joists had been damaged than had been thought to be the case in the first place. The building is now perfectly safe, and so permission has been granted for services to be held in the church again. A Congregational Fellowship was established in Timaru on January 4, 1877, at a meeting held in Mr D. Haggett’s house, Russell Square. Prior to 1877, when the church was built, Introductory services were held at the residence of Mr D. Haggett, and were conducted by the Rev. B. T. Hallowes. Opening services were held in the Mechanics’ Institute on Sunday, January 7, 1877. The church was built in that year, thus providing a permanent place of worship.