Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

The first peoples arrived in the Wairarapa region in the late 1300s and settled in Palliser Bay on the south coast. Early iwi migrant groups were Waitaha and Ngāti Māmoe, both of whom subsequently left Wairarapa for Te Waipounamu/South Island. Rangitāne, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Ira followed. Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu came from Heretaunga in Hawke’s Bay, while Ngāti Ira hailed from Ūawa/Tolaga Bay. Ngāti Ira moved on to Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington, leaving Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu to establish permanent roots in the region. During the ‘musket wars’ period of the 1820s and 1830s, Wairarapa was invaded by external iwi groups, including Te Āti Awa of Taranaki. Rangitāne were forced into the Puketoi and Tararua mountain ranges, while Ngāti Kahungunu moved north to Nukutaurua on the Māhia Peninsula. The migration path to Māhia was along the east coast of Wairarapa, past present-day Riversdale Beach and Rangiwhakaoma/ Castlepoint. Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu returned for good in the early 1840s after peace with Te Āti Awa was made. Tīnui Not long after this, Pāhekā explorers began scoping out the region for settlement and land sales to the Crown occurred the following decade. Land between the Whareama and Tīnui rivers was purchased by the Crown from Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne in the mid-1850s. This land was then sold on to Pākehā settlers and by the 1860s Tīnui, approximately 20 kilometres inland from Castlepoint, was established as a small sheep farming settlement. Shortage of flat land in Wellington, and a lack of ready employment due to absentee land ownership, had led settlers to look further afield to Wairarapa. Here they hoped to be able to purchase small affordable sections. And for those looking for work, there was plenty to be had in clearing the bush or working on the construction of the rail line. By 1880 the railway line was completed as far as Masterton and the road to Castlepoint was in a travelable condition. By the end of the year, a weekly coach service connected Masterton and Tīnui. Father Halbwachs Frenchman Father Anthony Halbwachs arrived in Wairarapa at the beginning of June 1876 and was the first resident Catholic priest in the district. At college in France and Ireland he had made friends with Francis Redwood, who was to become Bishop of the Archdiocese of Wellington in 1874, and seems likely that Redwood encouraged Halbwachs to join him in New Zealand. Halbwachs professed his readiness to serve in the poorest and neediest of places. The large Wairarapa parish, with its difficult roads and lack of any established churches was certainly this kind of challenge. Halbwachs’ appointment was also an astute move on Redwood’s part. German-speaking Polish immigrants were settling in the Wairarapa and constituted the largest defined group of Catholics in the region. A small and dispersed number of Irish made up the rest of the region’s Catholic population. Halbwachs’ proficiency in both German and English and his time spent studying in Ireland made him an excellent choice for the task of connecting with and building a congregation from these communities. Church-building At the time of Halbwachs’ arrival, the road over the Remutaka Range was still very rough, and he arrived to a parish with no church buildings, or residence for a priest. Previous infrequent Catholic services had been held at local halls or private residences. There is no doubt that the assignment was a challenging one, but Halbwachs met it with great energy and zeal. Over the course of his seven-and-a-half year stay in the district, Father Halbwachs built two presbyteries and five churches. The first church was St Mary’s in Carterton (1878), followed by St Patrick’s in Masterton (1879; List No.1319), Sacred Heart in Greytown (1880), St Teresa’s in Featherston (1881) and St Joseph’s in Tīnui (1881). Noted Wellington architect Thomas Turnbull designed the Carterton, Masterton and Featherston churches and is almost certainly responsible for those in Greytown and Tīnui. This intense and sustained period of building exemplifies the drive of Father Halbwachs to establish the Catholic Church in the region and to reach all areas of his large parish. St Joseph’s Church Before the appointment of Halbwachs, the Wairarapa region was connected to the Hutt Valley parish. Father Seon of this parish made regular trips over the Remutaka Range to visit Catholics and to say Mass. There is no record of whether his wanderings took him as far as Tīnui and Castlepoint, though he certainly went as far as Carterton. Halbwachs was diligent in his care and duty to reach all Catholics, and although the Catholic population was small, and the region large, he did his best to reach all he could. In the Tīnui area were Irish Catholics who worked on the sheep farms, and at least as early as 1878 there is mention of Halbwachs travelling to Tīnui and Castlepoint to give an Easter Mass. Services of various denominations were held at the Tīnui town hall. Anglicanism was the dominant religion in the area and the Catholic population was small. It is testament to Halbwachs’ initiative that it was a Catholic Church that was the first to be built in the town ̶ the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd did not follow until 1902. While working on the churches at Featherston and Greytown, Halbwachs began preparing for a church in Tīnui. The first task was to raise money and he held a bazaar, a common form of church fundraising at the time, a few days before Christmas in 1878. Around 1880, land for a church was donated by a Mr. Nathan, presumably Joseph Nathan, owner of the Tīnui General Store and a successful local businessman. By the end of the year, additional fundraising events and donations from the Pickett family raised enough money for work to begin. In May 1881 the New Zealand Times reported: ‘The Roman Catholic church is rapidly approaching completion…The building belongs to the Gothic style of architecture, with the usual admixture of the "New Zealand.” It is really a very pretty little structure, and is built on much the same plan as the Greytown Roman Catholic church.’ Funding issues appear to have held up its completion though when the first service was held on 26 June 1881 the church was unfinished. With loan repayments on Halbwachs’ other churches still outstanding, the economic downturn proved a strain on Father Halbwachs’ already limited means, and the small Tīnui congregation would have been feeling the pinch. Whether the building ever had an official opening is unclear. There are no reports in the local newspaper of any grand events, only an account, tinged with disappointment, of a service held on 11 September: ‘the attendance was not very encouraging, as the larger portion of the congregation were Protestants’. While the number of Catholics appears to have been less than was hoped for, the presence of Protestants shows general community support for the church. Church and community in Tīnui Over the years St Joseph’s church was used for weddings, baptisms, funerals and other events, as well as regular services. It seems that services were held just once a month, or perhaps even less frequently, as the priest had a circuit of churches to work at in his parish. Nevertheless Halbwachs set a precedent from the outset of inclusion and cooperation with all members of the communities within his parish, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. He was rewarded with broad community support, and early accounts in local newspapers often comment on his wide popularity. The economic depression which began in the late 1870s had left Halbwachs struggling to service the debt still owing on St Patrick’s in Masterton, the grandest of his building projects. In spite of his great energy, or perhaps because of his tendency to bite off so much, in June 1882 Halbwachs announced he would be leaving the region. He did not in fact deliver his final address until December 1883, before departing for Reefton in the South Island. Between 1884 and 1981, St Joseph’s was served by six priests, and it seems that services were never more than monthly. Travelling priests on missions also visited the church. After Masterton became an independent parish in 1901 its priest Dean John McKenna was better able to spread his energy around his parish, though reaching the outlying areas such as Tīnui was still a challenge. As described by the Masterton correspondent to the Catholic magazine Tablet in 1903, a ‘sick-call to [Tīnui or the nearby beach settlement of Whakataki] on a winter's night with torrent-banks awash, roads swept away and bridges tottering, forms one of the Masterton pastor's not least arduous duties’. Moving the Church In the post-World War Two period, better roads and higher car ownership made travel between Tīnui and Masterton easier. Parish life was concentrated in Masterton, with fewer services being held in Tīnui. At the same time, nearby Castlepoint was growing in popularity as a holiday spot, and Riversdale Beach was developed by Masterton businessman Basil Bodle as a holiday settlement. Bodle put the first 41 sections on sale in 1955 and the resort proved popular and in 1957 a further 58 sections were sold. During the busy holiday periods there was demand for church services in Riversdale Beach. Initially services were held during the summer and Easter periods, either at the YMCA camp, outdoors or in residents’ homes. To provide for more permanent services, Bodle gifted one section to the Catholic Church and two to the Anglican Parish of Tīnui. The intent of this gift was realised in 1979 when Anglican vicar Roger Burt approached his Catholic counterpart Father Bernard Miles with a proposal to move St Joseph’s to Riversdale Beach. By then St Joseph’s hosted services four or five times a year and two churches in the small settlement was deemed unnecessary. Agreement was reached and the move took place on 25 March 1981. The spire and porch were removed for the journey and the 30 kilometre trip between Tīnui and Riversdale Beach was completed in six hours. A New Life in Riversdale Beach St Joseph’s was officially re-opened in its new home of Riversdale Beach with a special blessing service led by Father Miles on 13 December 1981. Since then, the church has been used regularly for Christmas and Easter services by both Catholic and Anglican communities, and periodically for christenings and weddings. In the 2000s, rising house prices driven by Wellington buyers looking for coastal holiday homes, and the redevelopment of campgrounds, sparked fears about the changing character of the township. Concern at the prospect of St Joseph’s being sold for alternative use prompted a group of residents and holiday home owners to meet and discuss their hopes for the future of the building. This culminated in the creation of the St Joseph’s at Riversdale Beach Charitable Trust in 2017. The trust has a memorandum of understanding with church owner the Roman Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Wellington, and the Catholic Parish of Wairarapa, and its purpose is to refurbish and maintain the building and manage use of the church, including for religious services of different denominations. The building was restored in 2018 to the designs of Wellington architect Nick Bevin, with work carried out by various contractors and volunteers coordinated by (and including) the trustees of the St Joseph’s at Riversdale Beach Charitable Trust. In addition to church services the building still hosts important life events like weddings and baptisms and has become a popular tourist spot.

St Joseph’s Church (Catholic) is located on a flat, triangular section at the north end of Riversdale Beach, a small holiday settlement on Wairarapa’s east coast. The north-facing Gothic revival timber church is three blocks from the beach and is surrounded by open land on three sides, its spire a visible landmark in the low-rise settlement. Understated landscaping comprised of native plants complements the church’s clean, simple form. The church was restored by the St Joseph’s at Riverdale Beach Charitable Trust in 2018 and has been little altered since construction in 1881. It is the least-modified of Halbwachs’ five Wairarapa churches. The church is clad in shiplap weatherboards and is comprised of three parts: an entrance porch, nave and sacristy. The porch has a single lancet window at the front and is surmounted by a Latin cross. It is accessed by a short flight of timber steps leading to a landing at the side entrance, both of which were built in 2018. The narrow entranceway is decorated by restrained mouldings which form an archway at the top. The nave has three hinged lancet windows on each side, all of which are filled with stained glass scenes that reference traditional Catholic symbols and scenes inspired by the local community and landscape; these were designed by Heath Crawford and installed in 2018, and all were donated by local community members. The steeple at the apex of the corrugated metal gable roof has four lancet-shaped openings near the base (which houses a new bell cast by the Marinelli Bell Foundry of Italy) and a spire topped by a Latin cross. Simple mouldings echoing the lancet shapes sit within the apex below the tower. A third Latin cross is positioned above the sacristy at the rear, which has a lancet window filled with plain glass on the east elevation and an external four-panelled door on the west. Within the entrance porch, which has exposed timber trusses, double lancet-shaped doors open into a nave fully lined with horizontal tongue-and-groove timber. With the exception of the south wall behind the altar, all timber boards have been painted white, creating a pleasant contrast with the varnished floor boards, south wall and window frames. A new backlit timber cross is fixed to the south wall. Placed on the walls of the nave are the Stations of the Cross, 14 plaques representing the journey of Jesus Christ through Jerusalem on the day of his crucifixion. These new plaques, based on a 200-year-old design, were cast by the Marinelli Bell Foundry. Simple timber pews, some original and others replicas made during the 2018 restoration, line the nave. On either side of the altar are two Italian carved timber statues of the Virgin Mary and St Joseph, both of which were donated to the church in 2018. The sacristy is similarly lined with painted horizontal tongue-and-groove timber. Light is emitted through a single lancet window comprised of four plain glass panes. This space has been converted into a gallery with displays of historic photographs and associated interpretation.

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A fully referenced Heritage New Zealand List report is available from the Central region office of Heritage New Zealand.