Completed in 1894, the timber Gothic Revival-style Christ Church (Anglican), in the northern Hawke’s Bay town of Frasertown, has architectural importance as a late example of the work of Robert Lamb (1834-1895), who was a notable Napier architect. Christ Church has local social and spiritual significance because it has been the focal point for the Anglican community since its completion, as a place for regular services and important religious rites of passage. Originally called Te Kapu, Frasertown was the location of a military settlement and blockhouse in 1860s. At the time there was conflict between some local Māori and government forces and the town was named after Major James Fraser who was in charge of the area’s military operations during the unrest. In the town’s early decades, church services are thought to have been held in the schoolroom. The local community was fundraising for a purpose-built church by the early 1880s and the Church of England purchased the land for it in 1881. Lamb, ‘whose ecclesiastical and simple designs are in the front rank of architectural excellence’, was approached to design the building and he put out a call for construction tenders in September 1884. However, the project then stalled ‘for want of funds’, but the community did not give up and within a decade fundraising efforts gathered the £350 required to construct the church. It is unclear whether the original design, or an updated version, was used when Lamb called for tenders again, in February 1893. In March 1893 Arthur Robson Gardiner of Wairoa was announced as the successful tenderer and construction appears to have started later that year. Christ Church’s foundation stone was laid by the Dean of Waiapu, The Very Reverend De Berdt Hovell, in late November 1893, with local Presbyterians and Catholics also contributing to and participating in the celebrations. The church was opened in September 1894, with three services which each attracted ‘[l]arge congregations’. As its rural community’s only purpose-built church, Christ Church was an important place for local spiritual needs and services, and in its early years was ‘always well attended’. The church was also briefly the centre of the Wairoa Country parochial district, between 1913 and 1920. There were churches for other denominations in Wairoa, including St Peter’s Church (Catholic) and St Andrew’s Church (Presbyterian and Methodist), but roads were very rudimentary until the mid-twentieth century, meaning that Frasertown services were not exclusively attended by Anglicans. Christ Church is the oldest remaining rural Anglican church in its archdeaconry, which included a total of sixteen churches between Wairoa and Gisborne. It is a characteristic rural country church from its era, with representative features such as slim lancet windows, decorative gable-ends and native timber match-lined interior. Annual Easter and Christmas services are held, as well as funerals and other church community events, and generations of local families have a connection with the church.