Church of St John the Baptist Sunday School (Anglican)

Te Ahu Ahu Road, WAIMATE NORTH

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The Church of St John the Baptist Sunday School (Anglican) was built in the grounds of St John the Baptist Church, Waimate North in 1877. At a later but unrecorded date, possibly about 1950, the Sunday School was relocated outside the cemetery and placed between the Church and the Vicarage (the original Mission House, now Te Waimate Mission House), where it remains. The Church of St John the Baptist Sunday School (Anglican) is a rare and early surviving example of a New Zealand Sunday School. The Sunday School movement was significant worldwide in the late eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries in many parts of the Christian world. Samuel Marsden's building of the first Sunday School in Australia at Parramatta in 1815 and the creation of Sunday Schools in New Zealand from the beginnings of organised Pakeha settlement indicate how significant an institution they were seen to be in colonial society. For generations, very many New Zealand children attended Sunday School, even when their parents were not practising members of a church congregation. The building represents the former significance in New Zealand society of the Sunday School movement in the religious and cultural education of children. Built in a simple style in kauri, it was originally roofed with shingles, then iron, and now has been roofed with shingles again. Its timber framing, unpainted kauri interior and timber sash windows are typical of many rural Northland buildings of the nineteenth century. It has served many functions for the congregation of St John the Baptist's and the community of Waimate North. As well as a Sunday School it has served as a small church hall (in the absence of any other hall at St John's) for functions and events, for catering associated with funerals, weddings and other church occasions, as well as serving the community as a meeting room and a polling booth in General Elections.

Church of St John the Baptist Sunday School (Anglican), Waimate North. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | Shellie Evans – flyingkiwigirl | 22/06/2021 | Shellie Evans
Church of St John the Baptist Sunday School (Anglican), Waimate North. c.1930 Ref: 1/2-008806-F Permission must be from Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand obtained before any re-use of this image | Thelma Kent | Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 2

Access

Private/No Public Access

List Number

9925

Date Entered

5th May 2009

Date of Effect

5th May 2009

City/District Council

Far North District

Region

Northland Region

Extent of List Entry

Extent includes part of the land described as Pt OLC 48, (RT NA40C/227), North Auckland Land District and the building known as Church of St John the Baptist Sunday School (Anglican) thereon, and its fittings and fixtures. The Churchyard to the west and the Mission House land to the east are included in other registrations (Record no. 3 and Record no. 64). This registration includes the land between those two properties, and extends ten metres in front (north) and behind (south) of the Sunday School. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the registration report for further information).

Legal description

Pt OLC 48 (RT NA40C/227), North Auckland Land District

Location Description

The Sunday School is located between the Church of St John the Baptist and Te Waimate Mission house

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