The First St Andrews Church - the Centre Cambridge was founded in 1864 as a colonial military outpost in the Ngati Raukawa tribal area, part of the Tainui confederation. Although active in the Waipa district since 1835, Anglican involvement in the town did not begin until 1865. In 1871 a church committee was formed and a prominent site obtained on the corner of the main street and the road to Hamilton. In 1872 David Richardson, a prolific early Waikato architect, drew up the plans and specifications for a small church in the colonial Gothic style. Few of Richardson’s buildings remain. A parishioner provided cut stone blocks for the foundations and the builder was Phillip Cooper. St Andrew’s Church opened in 1873, capable of seating 120 people. Within just five years there was insufficient space for the growing congregation. By 1878 church furnishings included an Episcopal chair, a lectern and a memorial font. The first vicar was Reverend William Newcombe de Laval Willis (1846-1916), arriving in 1878 with his wife, Mary Agnes (‘Minnie’), (nee Clarke) (1854-1918), and staying 34 years. Willis became Cambridge’s first Archdeacon in 1882 and was involved in a wide range of community organisations, becoming affectionately known as the 'Grand Old Man of Cambridge'. Nationally, he was recognised as the founder of the Bible in Schools League. Thomas (Tom) E. Wells (1842-1910), was an influential community minded businessman and vestryman in Cambridge from 1878. Wells and his wife, Jane (1843-1929), were involved in fundraising for the new church and in obtaining a number of the furnishings. Wells attended St Andrew’s church for 32 years, serving as churchwarden, treasurer, a member of both the diocesan and general synod. By 1879 the original church was bursting at its (still unlined) seams and plans got underway for a more substantial church building. To allow the new church to be built on the prominent corner site of the property, the original church was moved back from the corner by about 18 metres (apse pointing west). The original church became known as the Schoolroom and was used for Sunday school, church meetings (including Waikato archidiaconal conferences) and public courses. When its spire became unsafe it was removed, the date of its removal has not been identified. In 1883, the original church was rented to the Cambridge Masonic Lodge and the money was used to finally line and ‘improve’ the building. A fireplace was installed in the building in 1901 for winter warmth. By 1916 the original church was also known as the Parish Hall, and a fund was started for renovating it. The new St Andrew’s Church Planning for the new church began with an invitation to the Auckland firm of Edward Mahoney (1824-1895) and Sons (Thomas (1854/5?-1923) and Robert) to submit plans. Mahoney’s ecclesiastical buildings reflect a gradual evolution from simple Gothic Revival structures to a more ambitious and creative use of the Gothic form such as is demonstrated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Khyber Pass (1881) - Willis’s old Parish, under construction at the same time as St Andrew’s. The firm designed at least nine structures in Cambridge, but only St Andrew’s and a house called Whare Ora (1901-2) are known to be still standing. After further fundraising, including a bazaar, the contract for the new building was awarded to W.G. Connolly of Auckland. The foundation stone was laid in January 1881 by the Governor. Willis and Wells were both intimately involved with the building process to ensure its workmanship and quality. The spire was topped by a St Andrew’s fish weathervane. Due to the financial depression, the nave was shortened from the original plan, but enough pews were made to seat 300 people and the church can hold 500. Some 450 people attended the building’s consecration in August despite foul weather. In 1916 it was still ‘one of the finest buildings in the diocese’. Cambridge was the first New Zealand rural district to possess a peal of bells. St Andrew’s Church bells were only the second set installed in New Zealand and the first in the North Island. Bells were supplied by Vickers and Company, England, in steel, being cheaper and lighter than bronze. The bells were installed on sturdy kauri framing with elm wheels and yokes, overseen by Richardson and dedicated in 1882. The bells came with a chiming mechanism allowing one person to ring the bells, though no evidence has been found of it being used. From the outset it was noticed that the Church’s wooden tower vibrated vigorously when the bells were rung, and that the two smallest bells were discordant, so in 1884 the bells were replaced by Vickers. They weighed in at 55 hundredweight (2495 kilograms), almost double the original set, at the church’s request. It was discovered that the new bells were too large to be rung all the way around (i.e. swung up), so they were fitted for ringing down, i.e. swing change chimed. In 1898 after two years fundraising, George Croft (1872-1955) was invited to discuss building an organ for St Andrew’s versus importing a second-hand organ from England, departing with a contract to build a modest two manual pipe organ. Croft was largely self-taught; his only work prior to this was for the Wellington (1896-97) and Auckland (1898-99) Exhibitions: the St Andrew’s instrument was his first church organ. He was a prodigious organ builder, completing about a third of the New Zealand organs built by 1930 and some sixty instruments over his working life, leaving a respected legacy. Timber was of the best quality and the front pipes of rolled zinc were ‘slightly decorated’. Some of the 398 pipes were made in England. The organ chamber was constructed where the chaplains’ vestry had been, requiring changes to the tower, bell chamber, and seating. The resulting instrument exceeded expectations, described as being of excellent workmanship and elegant design: it was dedicated in 1899. In memory of the South African War a carved reredos screen was obtained through Wells, at the instigation of his wife, and installed in 1900. Edward (Ned) Hewitt (d.1901) had served on the initial Anglican Church committee in 1871, was church warden for 20 years and was the instigator and a major contributor to the cost of the bells. He was renowned as a fundraiser for the church. He owned the local Criterion Hotel for 30 years and was involved in a variety of community organisations. The pulpit was designed and built in Cambridge in his memory, with carved panels produced by Mr Andrews, probably William H T Andrews, installed in 1902. In 1903 Cambridge was gazetted as a parish and the Centre was enlarged with a lean to room over nine metres long, other lean-tos and sheds were added over time. In 1905 the £3000 for land, fencing, church building, bells and church furniture was finally paid off: some donations even came from overseas, ‘so that the building is truly a people’s work.’ The roof of the church was in bad repair by 1910, but it was not replaced until 1913. Wooden shingles were no longer legal and slate was considered too expensive, so the church employed local builder Fred Potts to reroof in corrugated iron. In 1914 a second section of reredos screen was completed. The same year Archdeacon Philip Walsh (?-1914), a recognised local artist, painted two hatchments to commemorate The New Zealand Wars, unveiled by Dr (later Sir) Maui Wiremu Piti Naera Pomare (1875/1876?-1930), MP, and the ‘Imperial and Colonial Forces’ of 1869-70, unveiled by General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton (1853-1947), Inspector-General of the Overseas Forces and Planner of the Gallipoli landings. In 1916 the prominent Waikato architectural firm of John Willing Warren (?-1936) (FNZIA) and John Craster Blechynden (1881?-1954) redesigned the reredos, incorporating the three existing panels, installed in 1917. They also designed a font cover around this time in memory of a Cambridge soldier mortally wounded on 25 April 1915 in the Gallipoli Campaign. ?The first stained glass windows were dedicated in 1919, a memorial to the Archdeacon and Mrs Willis. All stained glass windows in the church were designed and manufactured by Whitefriars of London, also known as James Powell and Sons 1834-1962, producing coloured stained glass seen in churches all over the world from 1850. A set of windows in memory of the soldiers who died in World War One and paid for by parish members whose relatives had died in the war, was unveiled by Viscount John Henry Rushworth Jellicoe (1859 – 1935), admiral of the fleet, in 1921. They depict soldiers at Gallipoli and Le Quesnoy: New Zealand’s first and last battles during the war. From 1920 planning began to wire the church for electricity; however the New Zealand made electric chandeliers were not fully installed until 1925. In 1923 an electric organ blower was installed, and tuning and basic repairs were done locally until the contract was returned to Croft in 1930. As a birthday present to the Church, a new altar was commissioned in 1931. The fish weathervane was replaced with an iron cross in 1952, and in 1953 the World War Two memorial window was dedicated, featuring the three branches of the New Zealand armed forces. 1961 saw the relocation of the organ by New Zealand makers, G. Croft and Sons, run by George’s son, William (Bill) Croft (1914- ). The organ pipes and mechanism were moved into a gallery over the Western entry. The organ was increased to three manuals with the console positioned in the South transept where the organist could easily view the choir. The Chapel of St Francis was built in 1962 in the area vacated by the organ. A fire in the Chancel in 1964 saw choir pews scorched and a hole burned in the floor. Pockets of flame reached the ventilators in the belfry. Despite a rapid response and minimal water damage, smoke filled the entire building and approximately nine square metres of flooring had to be replaced. Two flags, the Queens Colour and the Regimental Colour associated with the First Armoured Regiment (Waikato) Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps Association (RNZAC), were installed in the church in 1970. New Church entry doors from the porch were designed by architect and parishioner Edward (‘Ted’) Hill in memory of the Wells in 1971. The 1973 centennial of the Centre saw another stained glass memorial window unveiled, dedicated to St Andrew’s vicars. The Church received an upgrade as part of its centennial in 1981 funded by the broader community, not just parishioners. The spire was resheathed in copper, and the cross replaced with one in brass. The pipe organ was again reduced to two manuals by the Crofts firm, overseen by Ken Aplin. Aplin had trained in England, joining Crofts in 1964, buying the firm in 1969 when he built the firms first large mechanical action organ credited with setting ‘the scene for the classical (neo baroque) organ revival’ in New Zealand. Aplin traded under the Crofts name until 1989 and continues to maintain the organ. The Parish Hall Despite the Depression, Thomas Stephen Cray was commissioned to design a Parish Hall in 1927. Cray trained at the Dunedin School of Art and Design at a time when it was associated with the Arts and Crafts style. From at least 1912 he was based in Hamilton, working with John Anderson, Frederick C. Daniell and John (Jack) Edward Chitty. He became an Associate New Zealand Institute of Architects, and a Registered Architect. In 1927 he moved to Cambridge. The Parish Hall was built by the productive Cambridge firm, Speight Pearce Nicoll and Davys (SPND). Pearce was a parishioner who served on the vestry for a time, often providing advice on building matters. Fifty years after the consecration of the Church, the Parish Hall foundation stone was laid in August 1931 and the Hall opened in November. The building was described as ‘modern in every respect’, showing a blend of Arts and Crafts and the Art Deco movements, having a pitched roof, but rectangular rather than pointed windows, and the use of reinforced concrete stucco. It could seat 200 and featured under floor heating, a strong room for the church archives, a stage with changing rooms and a supper room cum Ladies Guild room off the western side. A parishioner gathered seed from Italian cypress trees (Cupressus sempervirens) in the Garden of Gethsemane on his way back to New Zealand from serving in World War Two. In 1956 seedlings from this were planted around the Parish Hall. A lounge wing was added to the western wall of the Parish Hall in 1959. In 1964 the Hall served as the church for a time to facilitate restoration of the Church following a fire. St Andrew’s Parish Centre Major reorientation of the site in 1982 was undertaken to enable further growth of the Complex. The 1959 additions to the Centre were removed and the building rotated ninety degrees (apse faced north) in 1982. The Centre was connected to a new administrative block and an open cloister run along the north side, connecting to the Parish Hall forming St Andrew’s Church Centre, now known as the Parish Centre, which opened in 1983. The St Andrew’s Memorial Wall was unveiled in 1990, initiated by Willis descendants. In 1993 a flag pole was installed, generally flying the flag of St Andrew, but also the New Zealand, English and French flags. A lych gate was designed by Smith Pickering Architects of Hamilton in 1998 and installed on the Victoria Street entrance to the complex. It commemorates the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of the French town of Le Quesnoy, and the sister relationship between Le Quesnoy and Cambridge. The Parish Hall kitchen and toilets were altered in 2000 and the archives moved. By 2002 about 21,000 people were using the Complex yearly. In 2003 the Church’s roof was replaced with Coloursteel. In 2009 the St Andrew’s Parish Centre is still sited on one of the busiest intersections in Cambridge. The earliest building in the complex, the Centre is the oldest surviving building in Cambridge and like the Hall remains in everyday use. The market day fundraising tradition continues. Postcards of the Church have also been used for fundraising purposes. Community support has been evident when funds have been required for expensive maintenance, with donations not only from members of the church but also from local individuals, other churches, and the local council and grant agencies. The Church remains the tallest building in Cambridge and features the town’s only pipe organ. It is enhanced by a complete set of memorial stained glass windows. The World War One window and Lych Gate are thought to be the only memorials to the Le Quesnoy battle in New Zealand. It is the only church with a peal of cast steel swing chimed bells currently in use in the Southern Hemisphere, and the church belfry is one of only eight in New Zealand with a peal of change ringing bells. The St Andrew’s Parish Centre provides the most recent evidence of the growth of the parish and its ministry. The first Church, new Church and Parish Hall are all listed on the District Plan. The Church appears in several local heritage walk brochures as well as in national travel guides. Photographs of the Church feature on the cover of brochures, mastheads, stamps and local marketing materials, including the masthead of local newspaper ‘The Cambridge News’, and the website of a local real estate agent.

The church site was and is one of the most attractive sites in the town of Cambridge, bound on two sides by State Highway One, surrounded by established trees including those of the Domain across the road, and in a broader setting with many historic structures. It is just outside the commercial hub and is surrounded by the Selwyn Retirement Village. The railway line that used to go past it along Cambridge’s main street is no longer extant. The Church spire still dominates much of the surrounding town. All the buildings in the complex are painted in colours that tie in with the flag of St Andrews, i.e. white with blue trim, and are roofed with grey coloursteel. The layout of the buildings and key memorials are indicated on the site plan in Appendix 1 of the registration report. The First St Andrews Church - the Centre (1873) The building that was the original church is in an Ecclesiologist Gothic Revival style, single storey, gable roof in rusticated weatherboard. It no longer has a belfry and has been moved twice within the church grounds, so that the half-octagonal faceted apse now faces north rather than east. As part of the relocation it has been re-piled, rewired and reroofed. It measures 44 feet (13.4 meters) by 22 feet (6.7 metres). The lancet windows have intersecting tracery and fanlights. An original entry still exists on the eastern side, but the building is more commonly entered through the parish centre administration block. The connection to the administration block involved the removal of a door and fanlight on the northern end of the western wall which was replaced with a lancet window. A third lancet window and an arched door were removed; the latter have been replaced with double doors. The wall coverings and floors have been altered, but the open ceiling appears original with vertical sarking boards and exposed rafters. An entry on what is now the northern end of the western wall was removed, and two lancet windows (re-)installed. The south wall features a set of three stepped lancet windows, with a single smaller lancet window in angle of the gable above. St Andrew’s Church (1881) The weatherboard Colonial gothic church dominates the corner and is of high quality building materials, principally heart kauri. All openings in the external walls have label mouldings with decorative label stops. There is a decorative continuous sill around the building. Apart from a rose window in Cathedral glass at the western end, the windows are of lancet shape, with a set of three stepped windows under the north and eastern gables. Decorative gable brackets and shaped bargeboards echo the internal ceiling structure. The end of each gable is a wooden finial in the shape of a cross. The roof is pierced by a number of ventilators of trefoil pattern set into triangular dormers. Ventilation in the top of the tower and spire is through lancet shaped openings. The church has been partially repiled: all of the wooden piles and most of the brick piles have been replaced. Broken slate tiles have been reported under the church, some having been used to pack the piles pre 1995. Around the same time it was noted that the skirting boards were very deteriorated due to dry or wet rot, and appear to have since been replaced. The gabled west end porch retains its original doors (apart from some repairs where there was dry rot) and original wall linings. The internal Wells memorial double doors remain. With the exception of the bell tower and the mezzanine organ loft above the western entrance, the building is single storied. The organ is about three times as big as the original which had a much brighter sound. The interior is notable for the stained glass memorial windows, all believed to have been designed and manufactured by Whitefriars in London. The public area is a cruciform shape, measuring 80 feet (24.38 meters) by 55 feet (16.76 meters) across the transept, with the tower and vestry tucked between the northern transept and the chancel, and the chapel of St Francis between the southern transept and the chancel. The roof ridge is 38 feet (11.6 metres) high, creating a sense of the loftiness of the church and the smallness of the people in it. The interior is all in varnished timber with a 16 foot (4.88 metres) wall stud. The open ceiling reveals both structural and decorative beams, maximizing the sense of height. The wall and ceilings lining as well as the floors are of wooden tongue and groove, running vertically in the wainscoting, with horizontal match lining above, then with vertical roof sarking. The exception is the newer St Francis Chapel where the vertical tongue and groove runs to the roofline, above which the sarking is of plywood. All joinery is timber. The pointed door in the vestry is braced with a timber cross. The Chancel area includes many chattels serving both ceremonial and memorial functions, such as the reredos screen and curtains. The stained glass windows and almost all the chattels in the rest of the church also have memorial significance. The memorial font of Oamaru stone is based on the one at the Anglican Church of Old Sodbury, England. The wooden spire shaped font cover is suspended from the roof. The painting next to the Le Quesnoy window appears to be a copy of Capture of the walls of Le Quesnoy by George Edmund Butler, which he painted in 1920. It is one of a number of chattels that relate to the military associations of the church and the Cambridge area. Both the pulpit and altar are heavily carved, featuring pillars, pointed arches and grapevines, drawing on the Gothic traditions revived via publications by Ruskin, Pugin and Glazier, symbolic of John Chapter 15, in which Jesus starts, ‘I am the true vine.’ The church pews feature carved trefoils on the exterior ends, some with decorative metalwork inset showing a row number, presumably dating from the early period when pews were rented out as a fundraising activity. While Willis had wanted the pews to be based on the design of those at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the gothic trefoil decoration appears to be their only major common decorative element. The graceful octagonal spire is sheathed in 6G copper and is 107 feet (32.6 meters) high including the tower, on a 14 foot (4.27 meters) square base, topped with a brass cross. The interior of the belfry has wooden stairs going up three stories in total. The first two stories are lined with horizontal tongue and groove timbers, with the third storey (the bell chamber) lined with timbers set at a forty-five degree angle. Only the first floor timbers are varnished. Graffiti is on both the walls and in the bells themselves, comprised mostly of the names of bell ringers covering a long period, e.g. ‘D. Harrison, November 1924’ and a list of those who rang in the third millennium. On the second floor is the cast iron chiming mechanism which was made in London; it is not connected. The bells are hung on the original timber framing in one chamber, with the two smaller bells above the larger: the tenor bell measures four feet (1.22 meters) across. The iron bells are showing some rust, particularly on their exterior probably exacerbated by various leaks over the years also evidenced in stained timbers, and periods when pigeons etc have managed to nest in the belfry. There is a small door giving access to the roof. The names of bell ringers from over a long period are also scratched into the rear pew. Similarly, the south wall in the St Francis Chapel has the names of the bellow boys scratched into it, from the time when the organ was situated in this area. Ceiling pendant light fittings are of copper and feature repoussé flowers and enamelwork in an Arts and Crafts style, probably dating from the original electrical installation in 1925. The combination of architecture and fittings in the church evoke a strong sense of a long religious tradition. St Andrews Parish Centre Working from west to east, the Parish Centre is composed of: church lounge (1959), supper room and parish hall (1931), covered walkway, seminar room, vicar’s office, parish office (1983), the original church or Centre (1873). All buildings in the Parish Centre are single storey. Parish Centre Administration Block (1983) A kitchen servery and double doors connect the southern end of the western wall of the Centre to the 1983 administrative block, with an open cloister running along the north side, connecting to the southern end of the eastern wall of the parish hall. The administrative block includes a kitchen, toilet facilities, the church office, the choir’s robe room and meeting rooms. Parish Hall (1931) The original section of the parish hall measures 52 feet (15.85 metres) by 30 feet (9.14 metres) and is built of that Art Deco favourite: reinforced concrete, with a roughcast finish. The roof has no eaves, rather a crenellated parapet, but unlike most Art Deco buildings it has a high gabled roof, perhaps to link it to the other ecclesiastical structures on site, with their tradition of drawing the eyes heavenwards. The front gable features a stepped five light window - squared off befitting an Art Deco building rather than the more traditional arched or pointed windows seen in the Church. The Parish Hall windows are of diamond shaped leadlights in steel frames with label moulding. There is a string course around the top of the building. The symmetry is continued with centrally placed double doors topped by a blind arch with shields featuring the arms of the Diocese and St Andrew’s Cross on the spandrels. A pair of four paned windows flanks the doors. The west and east sides feature buttresses, with sets of six paned windows between. Entering through the front doors leads into a small vestibule, with two small storage rooms either side (one now the archives store): originally the vestibule measured 28 feet (8.5 metres) by seven feet (2.1 metres). The main hall features an open ceiling exposing a cross between a king post roof and arched beam roof: the dark stained wooden beams are partially supported by curved and stepped braces connecting the wall to tie beams. Combined with a sarked ceiling, the effect nods at a long English tradition, appropriate to an Anglican ecclesiastical building. At the southern end is a stage, the proscenium arch surround is of fibrous plaster. The internal bungalow-style doors (single panel over two) are topped with Art Deco style door frames featuring a simple stepped motif. The original under floor heating grills are no longer in evidence in the polished wood floor. The original supper room on the western side of the hall measured 29 feet (8.8 metres) by 13 feet (4 metres) and was renovated in 2000 to create a larger kitchen area and improved access to the toilets cum dressing rooms behind the stage. The lounge wing is entered through double doors from the supper room and also from the supper room vestibule at the northern end. The lounge has had little done to it since it was built in 1959. It features wood panelling and built in seating around most of the walls, with an open fireplace halfway along the western wall. The windows in the southern wall are diamond shaped leadlights possibly dating from the creation of the parish centre in 1983, providing continuity when viewed from the south. The other banks of windows in the lounge are more typical of the 1950s. Grounds Gate posts of the current style are similar to those in the earliest photographs of the 1881 church, but they are shorter and of concrete. The Dr Stapley memorial seats flank the corner entry to the property. The Lych Gate was designed in sympathy with the 1881 church, mirroring the gable brackets. It uses existing posts and matching brick to provide a link with the Dr Stapley memorial seat. The gate’s wooden shingles are a reminder of the church’s original roofing. Various memorial plaques are in the gardens between the seat and the gate. On the north side of the Parish Centre is a flag pole. There are many established trees providing shelter, they add to the beauty of the setting and contribute to the sense of age. Some have symbolic meaning, such as the two Italian Cypress trees presented by the Hewett’s. The cypresses are west of the Lounge and are protected by the Waipa District Council. A camellia pilada planted about the time the church was established, presumably one of the plants supplied by Sharp, is on the eastern side of the centre. Beneath it is a memorial park bench; another memorial bench is under trees on the Hamilton Road edge of the property. A memorial sundial is also in this area, missing the brass dial.