Ancient stories tell the origins of southern Maori, with the waka of Aoraki becoming Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island), and its sternpost, Te Taurapa a Te Waka o Aoraki becoming Bluff Hill (also known as Motupohue). The Maui traditions are told in the south, with Maui arriving in his waka Maahunui, and pulling up the stone to be used as an anchor - Te Puka o Te Waka a Maui (Rakiura). Maui's achievements are recognised in place names in the south, including Omaui near Bluff, and Te Tapuwae o Maui and Te Rereka o Maui in Fiordland (Maui's footstep and Maui's leap).
Stories of the original explorers of the south are also told. The explorer Rakaihautu journeyed through the south with place names recalling his journey.
After Rakaihautu came the Takitimu waka with Tamatea Pokai Whenua. The waka was overcome by three waves O-te-wao, O-roko and O-kaka, coming to rest near the mouth of the Waiau (Waimeha). The three waves continued across the low lying lands and ended up as features of the landscape.
The early generations learnt about the land and its resources: stone sources were found, and stone (especially pounamu) became an important trading item. Kaika were established close to resources. Rights and resources and places were established, and traditions established which protected the manawhenua.
When traditions were written down Kati Mamoe and Kai Tahu dominate the history after Waitaha, with stories of war and peace, and intermarriage that spread through the south. In the early 1820s there was further fighting, with muskets first being used at this time, with major sieges in the more northern area of the South Island leading a retreat to the south. Ruapuke Island became the centre of leadership in the south, its isolation giving a measure of security. The final fight with the northern taua of Te Puoho and his followers at Tuturau in 1835-1836, where Te Puoho was defeated, saw the end of warfare in the region.
According to the Ngai Tahu Statutory acknowledgments in the settlement important villages along the south coast included: Te Wae Wae (Waiau), Taunoa (Orepuki), Kawakaputaputa (Wakapatu), Oraka (Colac bay), Aparima, Turangiteuaru, Awarua (Bluff), Te Whera, Toe Toe (mouth of the Mataura River) and Waikawa. Mokamoka (also known as Mokemoke or Mokomoko) was a settlement at the Invercargill estuary sustained by the rich resources found there. Tauranga waka occur up and down the coast linking land and sea trails with mahinga kai resources. Whaling boats plied the waters from the 1820s leading to changes in settlement patterns and resource use.
1853 saw the Murihiku purchase which left Maori south of the Waitaki (excluding the Otakou Block) with only 4,630 acres, the start of a long quest by southern Maori for justice questioning the legality of the purchase as well as the inadequacy of the land reserved.
Invercargill Township was laid out by chief surveyor John Turnbull Thomson (1821-1884) in 1856, Thomson choosing the location for its centrality for both sea-based and land-based traffic, though the surrounding low lying swampy ground made the new settlement practically inaccessible. As with Dunedin further north, the development of the town was given an enormous boost with the gold rushes of the early 1860s. It was also in this period that areas of inland Southland began to be settled.
The bush covered land that became the site of Winton was initially surveyed during this period. These first surveys were contemporaneous with the turning of the first sod of the railway stretching north, through the new town, from Invercargill. This attracted workers to the fledgling settlement, and therefore it was a tremendous setback when work on the railway stopped in 1864. Construction resumed in 1871 and soon after Winton became a municipality in 1876, quickly becoming a key rural service centre. It continued to develop in this manner and is now regarded as the ‘agricultural heart of Southland.’
Holy Trinity Church
It was not long after Thomson started his survey of Invercargill that the first Presbyterian clergyman arrived in the burgeoning settlement, and it is Rev. Alexander Bethune who is attributed with preaching the first Christian sermon in Invercargill in late 1856. Prior to this a Christian presence had been introduced in Southland by Maori Anglican missionaries from the North Island, and there were also early Methodist missionaries active in Southland in the 1840s. Despite the strong Presbyterian settler influence from the mid-1850s, it is important to note that Southland was not a religious colony like Otago, and in the 1860s Presbyterians only nominally outnumbered Anglicans.
By the late 1850s it appears that most of the major Christian denominations had established a presence in Southland, but it was not until the early 1860s that the first purpose-built churches were constructed. The early church buildings in the Invercargill area, such as St John’s Anglican Church (1861), were constructed from timber, with the first permanent materials church being St Paul’s Church (Presbyterian) in Invercargill, completed in 1876. From 1862 Anglican services in Winton were held intermittently at available venues.
Winton’s development as a town led to its first churches being built, including one for the local Anglican community. On 19 August 1875, a group of local men met at the Railway Station with the design of forming a church committee and appointing a lay reader so that regular Church of England services at Winton could commence. The newly elected committee comprised of Messrs Bennett, Thomas Brown, D. Cameron, Cutcliffe, Devereux, Hiscox, Keen, King, Lampert, Livingstone, McWilliams, Meadows, Norman, Pratt, M. Shaw, Sproull, Stroude, R. Swale, Walker, and White. The committee immediately set about its business, requesting use of the Odd Fellows Hall or the Court House for services and a Sunday School, as well as scouting for people willing to run the school, and beginning to organise a choir.
It was at the 28 September committee meeting that the first mention of constructing a church was recorded in the minutes. The subsequent meeting acknowledged receipt of initial sketches from Frederick William Burwell (1846-1915) for a proposed building costing £400. The plans were described in the Southland Times as:
‘..a design for a very neat pretty Gothic edifice, capable of seating about 120 persons. It consists of a nave, porch, and chancel, and standing as it will upon the best site in Winton, will be a very great ornament to our already handsome little town.’
The submission of plans by Burwell was apparently an unsolicited move. However, by the close of 1875 the committee had investigated the possibility of getting a loan for a building on land donated by a Mr Armstrong of Fern Bush farm. They also wrote to Burwell requesting his lowest price for designing and supervising the church’s construction.
Burwell had been enticed to Invercargill in 1874 by the prospect of numerous lucrative contracts in the flourishing town. Burwell is intimately linked with the conversion of Invercargill from a frontier town to a ‘city of magnificent edifices’ over the subsequent 12 year period. It appears that Burwell had a vision of Invercargill’s potential and contributed greatly to cohesive commercial streetscapes, such as the impressive buildings which made up the concave of The Crescent. It was the profound effect that Burwell had in Invercargill by 1880 which led to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, at the age of just 34.
Aside from commercial and public buildings, Burwell also designed many Southland ecclesiastical buildings. Winton’s Holy Trinity Church and St Paul’s Church (Presbyterian) in Invercargill seem to have been his first forays into this sphere, followed by many other commissions for all the major Christian denominations around Southland. Although construction on the Winton and Invercargill churches began around the same time, the modest timber Anglican building seems to have been completed quicker. Therefore, Holy Trinity Church was dedicated earlier than the larger masonry building that is St Paul’s Church. Indeed, Burwell’s approaches to the Winton committee may have been his attempt in Southland of branching out into the ecclesiastical sphere. Among Burwell’s other Anglican churches were All Saints’ Church (1877-78) in the north Invercargill suburb of Gladstone, as well as in Gore (1881) and Thornbury (1882-83); Presbyterian churches included those in Roxburgh and Cromwell in 1879, and Riverton (1881); and Burwell also designed a Methodist church in Invercargill (1881) and a Catholic church in Gore (1882).
The tenders for Burwell’s Winton church were advertised in December 1875 and January 1876. Francis Jack of Invercargill won the contract for the supply of timber, with red pine (rimu) designated for the lining of the church and white pine for the weatherboards and flooring. Twelve tenders were received for the labour, ranging in price from £175 to £320. It has been recorded that the contract for the construction of the building was awarded to Messrs Price and Shardrow with their tender being £190. However, in a report on committee activities after the completion of the church it was recorded that they took pride in helping the community establish its ‘handsome little church,’ which was not only a credit to Burwell, but also the contractor, Colin McKay. It was McKay who had submitted the lowest tender.
It was not until after the contracts for the construction of Holy Trinity Church were let that a Building Committee was formed in February 1876. However, this was in anticipation of the construction beginning in March. A key task during this period was the instigating of a programme of fundraising ventures, such as special concerts. The committee seems to have been reasonably good at this. Of £365 which had been expended on the building by October 1876 almost half had been recouped from community subscriptions. Burwell also offered to donate to the building fund or to present the church with a font. The committee opted for the money instead.
Winton’s Anglican church was opened by Reverend W. P. Tanner on 8 October 1876. It was late that month that the name for the building was decided upon. Aside from services, initially the new Winton church was also used for Sunday School classes until an alternative could be found. In the early period fundraising to clear the debt of building Holy Trinity Church was still a focus of the church committee. Events included a lecture by Sir John Richardson (1810-1878). Richardson later donated the necessary funds for the construction of the church fence. In his design Burwell had specified a ‘picquet fence and gates’ be constructed along the streetfronts of the building. However this took some time to compete as the initial tenders were felt to be too high.
In 1884 the church building debt had still not been paid. The prospect of selling, or leasing, part of the church’s property was raised as a revenue gathering measure. This was viewed favourably and in April 1884 the committee agreed to sell land south of the church, being Pt Section 2, Block 3, Town of Winton. The remainder of the property was then transferred to the Diocesan Trustees. At this time Winton was still part of the Riverton Parish. It was only in the closing years of the nineteenth century that Holy Trinity Church became the centre of a Winton Parish.
It was possibly due to the subdivision that Burwell’s fence appears to have been replaced by a hedge. By 1918 the on-going maintenance of the hedge had become a headache for the Vestry and as such they determined to construct a concrete block wall. This was despite some members considering it an inopportune time given the inflated cost of concrete during World War One. As such, an initial working bee was held in July to cut down and burn the problematic hedge, and the current wall seems to have been built soon after.
Around the turn of the twentieth century many of the buildings in the commercial district of Winton’s Great North Road were replaced, either out of choice or, more often, by devastating fires necessitating it. As a consequence there are numerous substantial brick buildings present in this area. Indeed, as a timber building, Holy Trinity Church stands out amongst these two-storey structures. The survival of the building seems remarkable because there were some close encounters with fire. It seems in 1933 that several buildings around the church had to be demolished after a fire. This event apparently also damaged Holy Trinity Church, but it is unclear to what extent. However, it seems likely that this was when the sanctuary stained glass windows were damaged. These windows were not replaced until the church was upgraded in the 1980s.
In the late 1930s a location within the town was sort as a suitable place to hold church social functions and in 1939 the Church Hall Fund was initiated. The Church Hall was eventually constructed in the late 1950s. The church itself also underwent changes in the 1930s, such as painting the interior, replacing original windows which were in disrepair, and removing the choir stalls. Window replacement was again undertaken in the mid-1950s.
A significant milestone in the history of the building was its centenary celebration on 10 October 1976. The building is said to been crowded for the service attended by Bishop Peter Mann, and W. L. S. Harbour, the Archdeacon of Southland and a former vicar at Winton. Other events of the day included a lunch which approximately 120 people attended. A cake in the form of the building was specially created for the occasion.
By its centenary Holy Trinity Church was showing its age. Eventually this led to a full parish meeting in November 1980. After lengthy debate about the possibility of building a new church, extending the hall, or using the Presbyterian church next door, a vote showed that restoration of Holy Trinity Church was the favoured option. Various fund raising measures were then launched, including an appeal to parishioners, raffles, a garden tour and other similar events, and applying for funding from organisations such as the Lotteries Grants Board, Lions and Rotary.
Refurbishment and extension plans were created by Invercargill architect, John McCullogh. They included: a new vestry and entrance, altar extension, reconstruction of the bell tower, repair of windows, and a covered walkway the new entrance and the church hall. By mid 1981 the committee had secured $48,000 of the required $64,000 for Mac Stirling’s building contract. The project budget was kept to a minimum through the use of community labour at numerous working bees. The dedication of the additions and the rededication of the original building occurred on 20 December 1981.
The alterations to the church were considered a success. Although many parishioners still use the original Great North Road entrance, the new entrance and covered walkway created a useful sheltered space for people to gather in before and after events, like funerals and weddings. McCullogh’s work at the church was recognised with a medal award from the Otago-Southland Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects in 1984.
Another addition to the church grounds was the lych-gate donated to Holy Trinity Church in 2003. The lych-gate had been constructed for St Alban’s Church in Limehills in 1965. However, when that church was closed the lych-gate came to Winton, as did the St Alban’s Church organ. The concrete blocks of the lych-gate’s pedestal were sourced from a demolition site in Invercargill.
Regular services are still held at Holy Trinity Church. The 1876 original construction date means that Holy Trinity Church is the oldest remaining Anglican church in Southland.
