Mono Monday - Architecture

St Bartholomew's Anglican Church in Kaiapoi is the oldest church in Canterbury and the oldest wooden church in the South Island. Designed by architect Benjamin Mountford.

It is Benjamin Mountford's earliest surviving building in New Zealand, and the only one he designed in A-frame. He was determined to prove himself as a capable architect, having failed dismally with the first church in Lyttelton, designed in wet wood, which all split and cracked when it had dried, and which had to be demolished by about 1855.

Anglican churches popped up around Canterbury in the early years because the province began as a Church of England colony. Early churches were mostly of timber and built to last only 30 years or so. After that, it was thought population and wealth would have increased sufficiently to replace the crude timber churches with fine stone edifices.

Not in Kaiapoi. The river port settlement, where woollen mills and freezing works would be established, was always a "working-class town".

The recent earthquakes could not humble this 1856 timber building. It is still being used every week by Kaiapoi's Anglican congregation with an uneven floor and cracked walls. The church will undertake a restoration project to be started later this year.