Tararua: Historic Makotuku church gates restored by community effort to honour village history

Gates to a historic church that once stood in Makotuku have been restored in a bid to honour and remember the history of the rural Tararua village.

The gates, which had been left in ruins on Church Rd, are the only reminder that behind them once stood the historic Church of our Blessed Saviour building which was moved to Linton in 1972.

Makotuku resident, and part of the team that organised the restoration, Garry Streater said a discussion with the local RSA prompted the idea to restore the gates.

He said thanks to the Norsewood Districts RSA, Royal Engineer Sappers and Makotuku Progressive Association the site was prepped, gates repaired and sanctified in a ceremony on January 25.

Work was carried out at the site and the gates repaired.

Streater said it was hard to give a timeline on the project, but the gates had sat in his shed for safekeeping after being removed from the paddock.

“I had been watching them pretty much rot away for 40 years and thought if someone didn’t do something about it, they would be gone and no one would know anything.”

He said the School of Military Engineering in Linton were able to conduct repairs to the original wooden gates and give them a fresh coating of paint.

“For me seeing the gates there and knowing they are going to see me out now makes me happy.”

Tararua Deputy Mayor Erana Peeti-Webber attended the sanctification and said they would stand as a reminder of the building that once held importance to the community.

“If you’re new to Makotuku you wouldn’t even know there was a church down there.”

She said accompanying the gates and newly straightened-out fence was a storyboard to inform visitors of the history.

Peeti-Webber said the community was instrumental in organising the gate restoration.

“They are the ones that instigated it from the start and decided there needed to be something to represent the church that used to be there.”

Makotuku Church’s fascinating history:

The Makotuku village has seen two churches built in the late 1800s.

The first church build started in 1888, and the building was destroyed by fire in 1899, prompting calls from locals to build another.

The community rallied and a rebuild was commissioned in the same year in February for the second Church of Blessed Our Saviour.

In August of 1968 Rev Willink conducted the last service at the second church and once again its future was up for consideration.

The Dannevirke Gallery of History’s records state that discussions about the future of the building took place and it was to be offered “for sale for removal for demolition”.

In April 1972, the HQ of Home Command NZ Army advised the RNZE corps the 74-year-old church had been offered to the Linton Camp.

It was envisioned that the church would become the place of enshrinement for the roll of honour at the RNZE Corps and would also form part of the RNZE Corps memorial centre.

The church was dismantled in parts, marked and transported to Linton and in July of 1974 the building was finally complete.

The chapel was renamed the RNZE Memorial Chapel dedicated to St Martin.

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.