St Barnabas Anglican Church, Woodend NZ
St Barnabas Anglican Church, Woodend NZ
The first St Barnabas Anglican Church was a wooden building which opened on 2 December 1860. It was built on land donated by Rev. John Raven, the first Anglican priest in North Canterbury. The Press of 11 June 1928 reported that the wooden church had been condemned and would be demolished and rebuilt.
The small white concrete church was built in 1934 to replace the wooden church. Designed by Cecil Wood, the shingle-roofed church was consecrated on St Barnabas Day 1938. Christchurch carver Frederick Gurney sculpted the stone figure of St Barnabas set in a niche over the main entrance. Inside the church, the font, given in memory of John and Susan Pope, rests on a mill stone from Archers old flour mill at Woodend. Original public domain image from Flickr