Funded by a bequest from Emily Campbell, wife of runholder Robert Campbell of Otekaieke Station, this handsome church designed by architect Thomas Cane and built 1901, tells a story of landed gentry in North Otago and of the significance of religion in nineteenth century New Zealand. St Martin’s Anglican Church has aesthetic, architectural, historic and spiritual significance.

Between 1881 and 1891 the Waitaki Valley Anglican community was served by curates who lived locally but who were appointed by the vicar of Oamaru. In 1891 the Waitaki Mission District was established and Hugh Corrie Frere was appointed first curate of the parish. Kurow was in the Waitaki Mission District of the Anglican Church that extended from the ‘sea coast to a point in the mountains beyond Kurow, about sixty miles from that township.’ The district included the settlements of Kurow, Ngapara, Livingstone, Maerewhenua, Duntroon and the Hakataramea Valley. Frere’s appointment coincided with the generous but troublesome bequest left by Emily Campbell, wife of the late Robert Campbell who had been a leading North Otago landholder.

The Campbell bequest caused some difficulties for the parish. In 1892 the Church News reported from Minister H.C. Frere, the Anglican priest for the parish, that a ‘terrible mistake’ had been made in the bequest restricting it to the building of one church and parsonage for the Kurow and Duntroon districts. The trustees could not buy land or allow two churches to be built nor provide for the clergyman’s stipend. There was considerable local controversy over where the church should be built: the Duntroon folk wished the church and parsonage erected side by side in their town. While Kurow people argued for the buildings to be there. Nor did the endowment provide for a stipend for a curate. The bishop stepped in to offer a compromise where the parsonage would be built at Kurow and the church at Duntroon.

An 1892 newspaper article discussed the Kurow controversy. Mrs Campbell left £6,000 to the Anglican Church Property Trustees for the building of a church and parsonage between Kurow and Duntroon – the towns are 22 kilometres apart. After a lengthy period of debate a site in Duntroon was chosen and purchased from R. Orr. Plans were called for and the design of Christchurch architect Thomas Cane was chosen by the congregation and approved by the bishop. The Otago Daily Times described the design as fourteenth century Gothic and consisting of a nave, chancel, vestry, organ chamber and tower. All windows had traceried heads and were glazed with pale green cathedral glass with white margins in lead quarries. The floors were tiled, except under the seats where there were wood. The nave provided seating for 95 adults. The font, located just inside the door, stood on a base of wrought bluestone. The chancel was accessed down three bluestone steps through a ‘truly magnificent arch.’ The tower was finished with a battlemented parapet with a crocketted pinnacle at each corner. The tower from floor level to apex is fifty feet high. All corbels, capitals, summer stones and bosses were carved to Cane’s carefully conceived designs. The stone was from Perry’s Totara quarry. The contractor was John Menzies from Maheno, who also built the Kurow vicarage. The carver was Mr Baird of Hall Street in South Dunedin. Mr and Mrs Campbell presented a brass altar cross and desk, vases and candlesticks, and book markers.

St Martin’s Anglican Church was consecrated by the Bishop of Dunedin on 29 August 1901 and named for St Martin’s in the old town of Duntroon in Scotland. In his address the bishop recalled the kindness of the donors in giving the church and noted that it was built just outside Duntroon ‘on the nearest pieces of land’ to the Kurow vicarage and chapel. He recognised the effort that both the architect and the builder had put into the church.

In 2010 a stained glass window from Duntroon’s now-closed St Magnus Presbyterian Church in memory of parishioners Tom Mclean and Douglas Peterson found a new home in St Martin’s. In 2016, St Martin’s Anglican Church remains the centre for Anglican worship in the Waitaki Valley.