The Taranaki region is thought to have been settled by Maori at least 700 years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests that pa were being built in the area, which surrounds Mount Taranaki, as early as the fifteenth century. A number of iwi hold mana whenua in the west coast of the region, including Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga, Te Atiawa and Taranaki.
The area which would become New Plymouth was initially populated by hapu of Taranaki, and then Te Atiawa. Te Atiawa affiliate with the waka Tokomaru and are said to descend from the semi-divine origins of ancestor Awanuiarangi, whose people moved south from Northland to the Bay of Plenty and Taranaki. The tribal rohe (district) occupies coastal land from Onuku Taipari north to Te Rau o te Huia, stretching inland for several kilometres to a promontory on the north-east slopes of Mount Taranaki. Te Henui, the area following the course of the Te Henui Stream, is recognised as an area of historic and ecological importance. In the wider vicinity of the Holy Trinity Church there are the remains of three former pa sites.
Tribes from Waikato raided Taranaki and Whanganui in the late 18th century, and warfare continued until the late 1830s. Also in the early 19th century, other tribes from the north raided Taranaki, armed with muskets, and enslaved some and took them north. The Ngati Toa tribe of Kawhia was also under pressure from Waikato tribes, and they migrated to the Kapiti coast and Wellington area around 1822- 1824. On passing through the Taranaki region they were joined by some people of the Te Atiawa, Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama tribes. These upheavals and the depopulation of the area altered the balance of power. Between 1834 and 1837 Taranaki iwi defeated Waikato iwi in three battles in the area and finally a sacred peace known as ‘Hou-hou-rongo’ was negotiated.
European whalers initially arrived along the Taranaki coast in the first half of the nineteenth century, and generally integrated themselves relatively harmoniously with the local Maori communities. By the early 1840s, a Ngati Te Whiti pa at Ngamotu, called Otaka, was still populated but many other Maori strongholds in the region had been abandoned following the major migration of the remnant Te Atiawa population to Otaki, Wellington and Marlborough.
Organised colonial settlement at Taranaki was first instituted by the Plymouth Company in 1839-1840, who arranged to purchase land from the New Zealand Company for the settlement of immigrants from Devon and Cornwall, although this purchase would be much disputed in the future. The site of the township was chosen and laid out by Chief Surveyor Frederic Carrington in February 1841, and settler ships arrived from England from March 1841 onwards.
By this time the Plymouth Company had fallen into financial difficulties, and was formally merged with the New Zealand Company in May 1841. Settler ships continued to arrive, but disputes around the Crown’s role in transferring land out of Maori ownership, and between tangata whenua over who had the authority to transfer land were already evident.
The beginnings of Anglicanism in Taranaki:
With the European settlers also came the advent of religion to Taranaki, providing the familiar spiritual and cultural institutions of home to the settlers, and missionary services to the Maori population. Wesleyan missionary teachers had arrived in New Plymouth in 1838 to begin missionary activities for the remnant Te Atiawa population, and the region’s first mission station proper was established in 1841 at Ngamotu.
Although European settlers represented a variety of religious doctrines, many were members of the Church of England. Accordingly, once New Zealand had been proclaimed part of the British Dominion through the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the Church Missionary Society was able to expand on its earlier work by seeking the appointment of a Bishop for New Zealand. This would involve the setting up of the Anglican constitution in the new diocese of New Zealand. This undivided diocese initially included the whole country as well as various islands in Polynesia. In 1841 George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878) was appointed Bishop, arriving in New Zealand in 1842 to begin his ‘almost superhuman’ work.
Bishop Selwyn visited New Plymouth in October 1842, and set about organising the construction of churches in the parish. Sites were chosen for St Mary’s Church in central New Plymouth, and Holy Trinity Church in Weekestown. Weekestown later became known as Henui and now is called Fitzroy. Weekestown was about two miles from New Plymouth township and in the mid-1840s had a population of about 80 people. In the late 1840s the Bishop was recognised for having given up ‘literary leisure, elegant and refined society, the companionship of many devoted friends, [and] the prospect of high ecclesiastical position at home, to plant the church by the waters of the Henui...’
As well as the Anglican church, Henui also gained a Methodist one in late 1845. Indeed, the establishment of a number of ecclesiastical buildings in and around New Plymouth by the 1850s was for some a measure of the settlement’s improving social conditions and public security.
Holy Trinity Church:
The building is thought to have been opened in either March or May 1845 by Reverend William Bolland (1820-1847). The Holy Trinity Church is the ‘oldest edifice erected for [Anglican] Divine service in Taranaki.’ This original construction date places it among the oldest remaining churches, or remnants of churches, in New Zealand. Four other known examples of 1840s churches remain, three of them Anglican. New Plymouth’s St Mary's Church (Anglican) (Register no. 148) is a Thatcher design in stone that has been enlarged and modified. The timber Old All Saints Church (Anglican) & Churchyard (Register no. 11) in Auckland was built in 1847 and extended in the 1860s. Like the Holy Trinity Church, All Saints was constructed on a site selected by Bishop Selwyn and built to a design by Frederick Thatcher. Auckland’s Chapel of St John the Evangelist (Register no. 13) is now the earliest surviving example of a 'Selwyn Church'. Built from timber, it was designed by Frederick Thatcher and was consecrated by Bishop Selwyn in 1847 and extended in the mid-twentieth century. Auckland’s St Andrew’s Church (Presbyterian) (Register no. 20) was built between 1847 and 1850 from stone and modified in the 1880s and in the twentieth century.
The Holy Trinity Church is also a very early surviving example of a European settler building in Taranaki. Other examples include a relocated cottage in New Plymouth (Register no. 895) that dates from 1841, Te Henui Vicarage (Register no. 892) which was completed between March and April 1845, St Mary’s Anglican Church (Register no.148), whose foundation stone was laid in March 1845 and the building opened in 1846, and the Colonial Hospital built in 1847 (Register no. 29).
Young Reverend Bolland travelled to New Plymouth with his wife Jane, arriving in December 1843, and was appointed Deacon in charge of the parish in New Plymouth by Bishop Selwyn. Planning for Holy Trinity Church, then more commonly known as the Te Henui Church or Chapel, seems to have been underway by the time of the Bishop’s quick visit to Taranaki in late 1844. Bolland and architect Frederick Thatcher (1814-1890) were exploring the idea of an octagonal nave for Te Henui church. However, the eventual design was much more conservative, consisting of a simple rectangular gabled nave, a porch, and a belfry.
Thatcher was one of the first 15 associates of the British Institute of Architects, and was responsible for the design of a number of New Zealand’s celebrated ecclesiastical buildings, including Old St Paul’s in Wellington (Register no. 38), the Chapel and buildings at St John’s College in Auckland (Register no. 13 and 14), and Selwyn’s Bishopscourt complex at Parnell (Register no. 23). Another of his Taranaki buildings was the former Colonial Hospital (Register no. 29), and the 1845 stone extension to the Te Henui Vicarage (Register no. 892), home to Bolland and his family at a midway point between the two churches on his circuit. Thatcher is remembered as a key proponent of the influential ‘Selwyn style’ of architecture.
However, Holy Trinity Church initially seems to have had none of the refinements of Thatcher buildings such as St Mary’s Church. Holy Trinity Church was constructed with timber slabs and had a thatched roof of ferns and bracken, instead of raupo, which gave it a very rustic look. Bishop Selwyn described the building as ‘a temporary chapel of pleasing appearance.’ The thatch was not ideal as it seems to have been a breeding ground for all manner of insects. Congregants are said to have often been distracted during services due to black beetles dropping down on to them, being shaken free from the thatch through the vibrations of the bell. The building cost £50, all of which was contributed by Bishop Selwyn. This patronage was recognised with a brass plaque erected in Holy Trinity Church on the occasion of its 60th jubilee.
Around the same period that Bolland opened Holy Trinity Church, his Oxford University friend, Henry Govett (1819-1903), was ordained as a deacon. Govett eventually became the first Archdeacon of Taranaki in 1859. By this time he was the vicar of St Mary’s Church, having succeeded Bolland in this role in 1848. Govett then presided over many ceremonies at Holy Trinity Church throughout his long career. In the early period regular services at Holy Trinity Church were held every fortnight, and these were led by a combination of lay readers and local Methodist ministers. It was not until 1950 that the church had its own vicar, Reverend M. Richards, when Holy Trinity Parish was established. The Te Henui and Bell Block Parochial District had been created in 1915.
Any plans that the local Anglican community may have had to upgrade the facilities at Te Henui were seemingly stalled by the 1860s conflicts now commonly known as the Taranaki Wars. The Taranaki Wars were waged between the Crown and Maori in response to Maori resistance against the enforced alienation of their land. It was provoked by the difficulties caused by the demand for land for the colonists. An enquiry by Commissioner Spain in 1844 had upheld the initial European purchase of 60,000 acres, but this was re-investigated by Governor FitzRoy (1804-1865) and reduced to 3,500 acres. Over the next 15 years large blocks of land were purchased by the Governor on either side of New Plymouth, but tensions (both inter-tribal and between Maori and Pakeha) continued to escalate, erupting into hostilities.
During the wars the Church’s property was generally respected, but the parish suffered from a mass removal of European settler congregants, especially women and children, to the safety of places such as Nelson. Also, those among the population who did stay often had stretched personal finances, which in turn impacted on the parish’s resources.
The conflicts during the 1860s caused widespread deprivation, suffering and loss of life and land for iwi, resulting in the heavy confiscation of tribal land taken by the Crown under the Land Settlement Act of 1863. 185,000 acres of land within Te Atiawa’s rohe was confiscated. The devastating effects of these actions have since been acknowledged by the Crown through formal apologies and efforts of redress by settlement agreements, although the legacy of disenfranchisement continues to affect Maori.
The wars of the 1860s saw many buildings - especially those in outlying areas like Henui - fall prey to the fighting, sacked and burned. 187 settler homesteads were known to have been destroyed during the conflicts, all located outside the defensive cordon of the central township. The Holy Trinity Church is therefore a rare survivor of this significant period in Taranaki’s history. Its survival could be attributed to the general esteem in which clergy were held, as Bolland and Govett had forged good relationships with the Maori through their missionary activities.
Recovery took time after the devastation of the Taranaki Wars. However, it would appear that Holy Trinity Church’s community were determined to lose no more time in upgrading their building. A contract was advertised in 1869 for repair and restoration of the church, with fund-raising activities, such as bazaars, beginning that year as well. It seems that it was not until 1872 that the original timber slab cladding was replaced with boards and battens. The thatch was also exchanged for shingles, much to the relief of the users of the building.
The 1880s seem to have been a time of great change for the building. Increasing numbers of churches were built around New Zealand in the 1870s and 1880s as European settlement spread and early established places matured. This second wave of church building saw the replacement of some of the earliest churches, or their alteration to accommodate larger congregations, such as Holy Trinity Church’s Auckland contemporaries, the Catholic Cathedral of St Patrick and St Joseph and St Andrew’s Church (Presbyterian).
Therefore it is not surprising that in 1884 Holy Trinity Church was closed while interior alterations were undertaken in order to insert a new organ, as well as rearranging the pews to form an aisle. A new bell was also installed. Then in 1888 tenders were called for a significant building programme which resulted in the creation of transepts. The architect, James Sanderson, also created a vestry and a completely new roof encased the expanded building. The extensions were said to give ‘a decidedly architectural look to the building.’ Once again Archdeacon Govett was involved and he officiated at the church’s re-opening service.
Although over 40 years after Bishop Selwyn instigated the construction of Holy Trinity Church, it seems like it was only after these extensions that the once rustic building began to look more like a ‘Selwyn style’ church. The style the building takes can be variously described as Antipodean Gothic, Colonial Gothic, Selwyn’s Gothic, or Gothic Revival. Selwyn was interested in bringing this revival of medieval Gothic architecture to New Zealand because of his own belief that it was the only style appropriate for ecclesiastical buildings, which was strengthened through his involvement with the Cambridge Camden Society. Thatcher - Selwyn’s architect of choice - was also a member of this society, and together they adapted the style to suit New Zealand conditions and building resources. This type of building had become a vernacular style of building in New Zealand by the time of the second wave of church building.
In 1903 the interior was altered again, with the cost primarily borne by Archdeacon Robert Henry Cole (d.1935). The altar was raised at this time to designs by F. Messenger. Around this time the Reverend F. G. Evans noted that there was ‘...very progressive spiritual work going on at Henui’ and that the ‘...congregations have largely increased, and the services are always bright, hearty and reverent.’ The congregation made a concerted effort to acknowledge important figures in the church’s history in the early twentieth century. Several commemorative plaques were installed, dedicated to Archdeacon Govett and to Reverend H. Handley Brown. A diamond jubilee bell had also been commissioned and hung in the belfry. There were further changes to the building made by Messenger in the 1920s.
In the mid-twentieth century Holy Trinity Church became the centre of its own parish and a vicarage was therefore required. This building is currently on the north of the church section and was constructed in 1956. The next building project of the new parish was to complete a parish hall. This building constructed in 1962 replaced a late nineteenth century church hall. The current form of the church is a result of further extension in the late twentieth century. These include additions made in 1966 and 1978 that saw the building expanded at its sides in order to boost the seating capacity to 350 people.
Thousands of divine, wedding, funeral and other Anglican services have been held in Holy Trinity Church since 1845. An early marriage of interest in November 1846 was between local resident Mary Chilman and Thomas King. The fifth child of this union was the eminent New Zealander Sir Frederick Truby King (1858-1917). His elder brother, Newton (1855-1927), became a prominent businessman through his namesake company. Indeed, the King family, who had large land holdings just outside of New Plymouth, are said to have ‘belonged to the settlement’s commercial and political elite.’ The family maintained a relationship with the church, it being the location of Sarah King’s wedding in 1878. Holy Trinity Church continues to function as an ecclesiastical building.
