Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

Constructed in Parewanui in 1862, this unusual Presbyterian Church has gun flaps in two of its walls and doubled as a blockhouse until the early 1870s. The land at Parewanui had been sold to the Crown in 1849 by tangata whenua Ngati Apa. Their right to do so had been strongly disputed by Ngati Raukawa, allies of Te Rauparaha, who claimed control over the area through conquest. Ngati Apa retained a reserve of 647.5 hectares [1600 acres] in Parewanui. By the mid 1850s a number of Wellington farmers, many of whom were Highland Scots of the Presbyterian faith, had settled in the area. The first Presbyterian service was held in the district in 1852 by Reverend James Duncan [1813-1907], a missionary who had formerly worked among Maori in Turakina. Five years later, land for a Scottish kirk was donated by Adam Keir, a settler from Edinburgh whose property bordered on the Parewanui reserve. The church was erected in 1862, a year in which tensions escalated between Ngati Apa and Ngati Raukawa over the distribution of money made from illegal rental arrangements with settlers. The 'neat and suitable church' at Parewanui is a simple, rectangular building with a steeply pitched roof. Clear lancet windows in the small entrance porch and along the sides of the church allow light into the building interior. Built entirely of native timbers, two walls of the church include gun flaps similar to those found in early redoubts. The space between the walls is unusually thick, suggesting that the double-skinned walls of the church may have been filled with bullet-proof clay or pebbles. These features indicate that this small Scottish kirk was intended to double as a protection for the settlers in the event of war between Ngati Apa and Ngati Raukawa. Nepia Taratoa [1793?-1863], the Ngati Raukawa leader responsible for the illegal rental arrangements, died in 1863, shortly after the completion of the church. After Taratoa's death the fierce dispute over the rents intensified and each iwi began preparing for war. Fearing that they would become involved in the conflict, the settlers dragged the fortified church up to Adam Keir's house and surrounded both buildings with an embankment. The complex was named 'Ross's Redoubt'. During the three years in which armed confrontation between the two iwi seemed imminent the settlers developed defensive strategies and strengthened their militia. In late 1866 the Superintendent of the Wellington Province, Dr Isaac Featherston, helped negotiate a peaceful settlement by persuading the parties to sell the disputed land to the Crown. Just two years later the settlers were again under threat. Ngati Ruanui military leader Riwha Titokowaru [? - 1888] began his advance from Wanganui to Foxton. Under the leadership of Major John Marshall, the settler militia at Parewanui mobilised. Ross's Redoubt formed part of a chain of 10 defensive positions designed to protect settlers from Titokowaru's advance. Described by Marshall as an 'excellent place of refuge', in 1869 the redoubt was upgraded for £10 and a drawbridge was installed at the entrance of the church. When Titokowaru's campaign came to an abrupt and mysterious halt in 1869, the government ordered that all timber and iron used on the construction of blockhouses should be sold. Eight of the ten Rangitikei redoubts were immediately dismantled. The ninth was demolished a year later but the church, which had served as the blockhouse at Ross's Redoubt, was re-sited on land in Ngati Apa's Parewanui reserve and used by the Presbyterian parish of Bulls. In 1962, 100 years after the church was first erected, the underutilised church was moved from the Parewanui reserve to Tangimoana, a settlement across the Rangitikei River. In Tangimoana the church continued to serve the local Presbyterian congregation but from 1977 it was also used for Methodist services. In 1998 financial hardship and dwindling congregations made it necessary to sell the church building. In 2000 it was relocated to Saint Andrew's, an Anglican church in Reikorangi, Waikanae. Although the historic plaques and communion table were donated to the Presbyterian parish in Rongotea, the church retained its pulpit, pews and organ during the transfer. The former Presbyterian Church, which is a similar architectural style to Saint Andrews, is now used as a Sunday School and parish hall. The Presbyterian Church is both rare and unusual for its construction and use as a blockhouse. It is architecturally important for the insight it gives into the defensive strategies adopted by Pakeha settlers during the 1860s. As the last of the ten blockhouses erected in Rangitekei by settlers in preparation for Titokowaru's unconsummated military advance towards Foxton, the church is an important link to a nationally significant event. The church also has local significance in the Parewanui district as a connection with the first Pakeha to settle in the area. The church's history of removal and re-siting to areas that require church premises illustrates the changing requirements of religious communities, and the building continues to be highly valued in each of the areas it has served.

The Scottish Kirk is designed in the Victorian Country, Early English Gothic Revival Style of the period 1837-1901. It is a small, simple building based on a rectangular plan. It has an entrance porch located in the centre of one end with a roof at a 60-degree angle made from corrugated iron, and lean-to vestry at the other. A kitchen extension has also been added to this end. The exterior features plain bargeboards and shiplap weatherboard cladding. The main building has a steeply pitched, gable roof of corrugated iron. There is a ventilator louvre at one end and finials decorate the two gable ends. On either side of the nave are two small, rectangular gun hatches. These hatches suggest that the church walls were constructed as a double skinned wall - that is, a wall with both an inner and an outer wall wide enough to accommodate sic inches of clay infill, similar to that found in the Cameron Blockhouse at Marangai in Wanganui. The church is lit by a series of plain, lancet Gothic windows set in timber frames along two sides of the building and in the main door of the porch.

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A fully referenced version of this report is available from the NZHPT Central Region office Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.