St Joseph the Worker Church, 18 Winchester Street, Lyttelton, New Zealand  1865-2011 

 Memorial garden 2023

St. Joseph the Worker 

Memorial Committee 17/11/2023

Pene Clifford, Gerry Doherty, Mary Hancox, Pauline Goodfellow & Frances Hutcheon

Lyttelton’s Catholics celebrated the opening of St. Joseph’s Church on the feast of St Peter and Paul, 29th June 1865. St Joseph’s was a Roman Catholic Church home to those of mainly Franco-Irish origins. Rev. Jean Baptiste Chataigner, SM was the first of twenty-nine Parish Priests [i] to serve St Joseph’s Church over 146 years.

In July 1840 French missionaries had established the first Catholic mission in the South Island based in Akaroa. Bishop Pompallier visited here and at the same time visited Whakaraupō, where he was given a warm reception by local Māori; the missionaries worked among Māori at Kurarata, Purau, Rāpaki and Port Cooper (Lyttelton).

In 1860 the Hon. Frederick A. Weld, Esquire, a wealthy Catholic, who later became Sir Fredrick Weld, Premier of New Zealand, gave a quarter acre section for a church to be built in Lyttelton. By 1864, £800 had been raised to build the church, and the Provincial Government gifted a further £100. In January 1865 the Lyttelton Times recorded that Messrs Graham and Weybourne had been awarded the contract to build St. Joseph's Church for £1,200 and on 2nd February 1865 the foundation stone was laid alongside a glass bottle containing a copy of the Lyttelton Times and The Press.

St. Joseph’s Church was designed by architects Messrs Mountfort and Bury to accommodate 400 people with Messrs England Brothers furnishing the woodwork and interior fittings. The England brothers Robert and Kelynge, were the carpenters for the church; in 1865 they occupied a house, cottage, timber-yard, workshop and front-shop on section 173 nearby in Oxford Street. St Joseph’s Church was to be built out of locally quarried stone from Sumner Rd and Governors Bay quarries (with imported slate for the roof). Brian Weybourne was a skilled stonemason building a frontage of polychrome stonework; a fine example of plain gothic design and testament to good craftsmanship.

Architect, Benjamin Mountfort, had previously gained some notoriety in Lyttelton due to the first Anglican Church he designed in 1851 being constructed of green timber, which shrunk rendering the building so dangerous it had to be demolished. The success of the building of St Joseph’s Catholic Church certainly salvaged his reputation, Mountfort is acclaimed as one of New Zealand’s most brilliant pioneer architects responsible for many of Canterbury’s best gothic buildings.

The Lyttelton Times reported details of the opening of St Joseph’s Church in its 14th July edition. The modest forty-eight foot long church would have been much welcomed after the use of domestic homes. From 1869 it also housed the Catholic school; this too was reported in the Lyttelton Times on 18th February detailing that St. Joseph’s school enjoyed a school picnic at Cass Bay , transported there by Mr. Kenner’s horse and dray. By 1878 St. Joseph’s schoolroom was built to the left of the church.

The Sisters of Mercy [ii] served the parish and worshipped in St. Joseph’s Church since 1890. They were integral to the education of  generations of Lyttelton’s Catholics. According to the History of the Sisters of Mercy, Lyttelton, written in 1968, by Sister Mary Benignus, a second school, St Mary’s, was opened in 1890 because the Sisters of Mercy needed this as an income.

  “Bishop Grimes, the then Bishop of Christchurch, desired the sisters to take charge of the existing Catholic school under the management of Mr Sullivan who taught in this funnel-shaped hall that seated one hundred and ten boys and girls. The parish priest did not think the sisters were necessary so they received a cold introduction to their new foundation”.

So as well as this “difficult mission” the sisters decided to open St Mary’s High School which took fee paying students and taught music at the convent. They finally were accepted as teachers at St. Joseph’s in 1899, but were not paid for this, except a sixpence donation per week per child, until 1940. Sister Benignus’s history tells us that in 1940 after the death of Parish Priest Father Patrick Cooney, the sum of two thousand pounds was given to the sisters from his estate, as backpay.

 1921 saw a brick school room built behind the church at the cost of £1,500, with the wooden infant room that seated 30 retained within the convent grounds. (This small wooden building still stands on Canterbury street. Another wooden school replaced the brick school building in 1983, it was established to the east of the church on Winchester Street, this closed in 2009 and has since become Busy C’s Preschool.

The church bell was hung in a temporary tower in 1874, but this was later shifted to one of the gables in the eastern transept. St Joseph’s Church was extended in 1941 and the interior altered in the 1960s. The Church of St Joseph had a cemetery on Reserve Terrace. The church has a detailed written history that tells the stories of the characters involved with St. Joseph’s the Worker Roman Catholic Church history researched by Mr Terence Byles.

In 1874 a small weatherboard Catholic Church was officially opened at Rāpaki, as part of St. Joseph’s Parish. It was used until 1898, but fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1950. From 1995 the Catholic population across the harbour had grown sufficiently to warrant a the priest from St. Joseph’s Church travelling across the harbour to celebrate mass in Diamond Harbour.

On 4th September 2010 an earthquake (7.1 Richter scale) damaged the south facing frontage of the church. On 22nd February 2011 a subsequent huge and shallow earthquake, centred close to Lyttelton, caused the frontage to completely collapse. Another big aftershock on 13th June further damaged the church to the extent that three months later the decision was made to demolish it. 

On 18th September 2011 there was a Thanksgiving and Farewell Ceremony for the deconsecration of St. Joseph the Worker Church, with Fr. Rick Loughnan and Fr. Denis Nolan as celebrants.

St. Joseph’s parishioners continued to gather for worship locally, as they had done before the church was first built. First they met in the wooden St Joseph’s School building and then later in the parish house, the old presbytery, at 21 Exeter Street.

The empty church site was used by Lyttelton Main School for Portacom classrooms while its earthquake damaged building was demolished and the new Lyttelton Primary School was being built.

At Pentecost, on 23rd May 2021, a final mass was celebrated in a marquee on the site of the church; this was the official closure of St. Joseph the Worker parish. At this final mass plans and a fundraiser for a St Joseph the Worker Memorial was launched by the Friends of St. Joseph the Worker Memorial Charitable Trust.

Finally, in 2023 the Memorial garden at the front of 18 Winchester Street was completed in recognition of the rich history of the oldest stone Catholic church in Canterbury. The memorial garden features include the surviving heritage fabric consisting of the original boundary walls, posts, church signage, wrought iron railings and archway. In the memorial garden are what was salvaged from the earthquake deconstruction: the original church bell, some stonework from the church, the stone cross from above the entrance porch and the wooden cross from the top of the church.

St Joseph the Worker Memorial acknowledgments and thanks:

• Firstly, to The Friends of St Joseph the Worker Memorial Charitable Trust for your vision.

• To all the past parishioners and locals who generously donated their time and money.

• To staff at Christchurch City Council, for all the advice and support and the grants from Banks Peninsula Community Board and C.C.C. Heritage Team 

• For the generous grant from the Lottery Environment and Heritage Fund

• Also to:

·      Martin Barr, architect who created the design (past student of St Joseph's)

·      The stone masons: Andrew Borthwick (a 2nd generation Scottish stonemason)     and assistant stonemason Dean Davey

·      Kathryn Dalziel, barrister (donation)

·      Dennis Doherty, accountant (for pro bono work)

·      Michael Healey, Archaeologist,

·      Chris Morrison, boat builder (for pro bono work)

·      Mortlock McCormick Law

·      Dwayne Pool, Marinetec (for pro bono work)

·      Starks Engineering (for pro bono work)

·      Regan Stokes, te reo Māori translator of signage

·      Strathclyde Construction N.Z.

·      Les Schenkel, Teddington Forge

·      The Tree People, arborists

·      Mark Whyte - Goldfields Stone Limited (for pro bono work by his team)

·      To all the contractors who completed this project

All who made the memorial garden, at the front of the original church site, 

on 18 Winchester Street possible.

[i] Parish Priests of St Joseph’s Church, Lyttelton.

1860-1870 Rev. Jean Baptiste Chataigner, SM

1871-1873 Rev. Francis Boibieux

1873-1876 Rev. Francis Del Monte, OFM

1876-1877 Rev. Jean Baptiste Chataigner, SM

1877-1881 Rev. Jeremiah Donovan

1881-1882 Rev. Thomas Walshe

1882-1884 Rev. Patrick Treacy

1884-1889 Rev. D.P. O’Connor

1889 Rev. M. Kickham

1889 Rev. F.E. Loughnan

1889-1892 Rev. Michael Laverty

1892-1893 Rev. William Purton, OSB

1893-1899 Rev. diMatthia Salvador

1900 Rev. R.J. Franklin

1901-1939 Rev. Patrick Cooney

1939-1951 Rev. Thomas McKeon

1951-1954 Rev. Owen Gallagher

1954-1955 Rev. Kevin O’Sullivan

1955-1956 Rev. Larry McDonnell

1956-1965 Rev. Daniel Healy

1958 Rev. Joseph Kelly

1962-1963 Rev. Gerard Fahey (Adm)

1964-1966 Rev. Kevin O’Grady

1966-1971 Rev. Brendan Gibbons

1972-1973 Rev. John Coleman

1974-1976 Rev. Seamus Clenaghan

1976-1980 Rev. Kevin O’Reilly

1980-1984 Rev. Robert Wilson

1985-2003 Rev. James Consedine

2004-2011 Rev. Denis Nolan

[ii] Sisters of Mercy Convent, Lyttelton

23, Exeter Street, Corner of Canterbury Street, Lyttelton TS 87 & 88.

This landmark was the largest residential building in Lyttelton when it was built c1930, by Mr J.B. McCormack, in the classical colonial Georgian style as a two-storey brick convent with slate roof and columned entrance porch. Pre-2011 Earthquakes the grounds were surrounded by high walls with an arched brick gateway and solid double gates. The builder (J.B. McCormack) was granted a £ for £ subsidy as part of the government employment scheme to provide employment during the Great Depression.

The previous building on the site was an earlier timber house built in 1864 Frederick Le Cren owned this house and land (TS 87). Captain F.D. Gibson lived in the original house on TS 88 by 1868; he was Lyttelton’s Harbour Master during the provincial years before Harbour Board took control in 1877. Captain Gibson had eight clever daughters, five of them were graduates of Canterbury University College and two of them opened Rangi Ruru School and managed it for fifty-five years.

The Sisters of Mercy arrived here in 1890 and extended the original house with additions of a chapel and classrooms in 1895. (See the photograph below, which shows the chapel and classrooms on the left.) The nuns did a century of good works in the community and parish, including visiting the prisoners at Lyttelton gaol.

The nuns had no wish to be a financial burden on the small working class parish of St. Joseph’s, so to earn an income the Sisters of Mercy taught fee paying high school students here: St Mary’s Convent School, nicknamed “the top school” was opened in February 1890, reported in the Press on 5th February 1890:

A convent was recently formed in Lyttelton in connection with St Joseph’s Church, under the charge of Rev. Mother Aloysius. The Rev Mother with her assistant sisters and competent lay teachers, opens a school for the higher class of education for ladies on Monday next.

St. Mary’s Convent school continued for sixty two years, it provided both primary and secondary education until it closed in 1952 when the remaining pupils transferred to St. Joseph’s. The nuns also taught music: singing, piano and violin; the little music room that also housed the primers (1918-26) still survives at the rear of the section where the convent stood, now accessed from Canterbury Street and is a small weatherboard building. (See photograph above)

A history of the two schools 1869 – 1994 Beacons on the Hill was written for the St Joseph’s School 125th anniversary, researched by Terry Byles. 

The centennial history of the Sisters of Mercy published in 1978 Mercy Through the Years has more details about this historic building.  

The brick convent was built on the site circa 1930, as the original convent ‘was beyond repair and more space was needed’. This imposing brick building graced the skyline as an important landmark until the February 2011 earthquakes destroyed it. It was very much in original condition (see 2005 photographs above). By 1980 there were five nuns left here, so the building was sold for use as a conference centre (The Moorings) and the sisters moved to a smaller wooden convent at 19 Exeter Street.

Special recognition was given to the nuns in St. Joseph the Worker Church 1865-2011 history “ Cast the Net to Starboard” by James Consedine.

“The Sisters of Mercy have served the parish and worshipped in St Joseph’s since 1890. More than one hundred years of dedication and commitment to the people of Lyttelton Harbour Basin and their children is a proud record. Epitomized by the much loved parish workers in recent years Sister Thecla (Maureen Pearce) and Sister Judith Murphy, their service is immeasurable the in faith development of generations of Lyttelton Catholics.”

19, Exeter Street, Mercy Convent, Lyttelton

(Former Wesleyan Parsonage. 1881.) Architect: Mr John Barnes (of Lyttelton)

Materials of construction: Totara exterior and iron roof. Style: large 2 storey square house. 

Previous buildings on site: earlier parsonage (pre 1868).  

Legal History of the land:

1851, November 1st – this is the initial sale from the Canterbury Association to a William Morgan for £15 at the land auction. 1862, July 4th – This conveyance is the first registered record of the Methodists buying the land. 1874, March 19th – There is a mortgage for £200 by the trustees to the P.J and L Association. The receipt of this mortgage is affected on the 22 July 1881 and another mortgage is taken out on the 23rd July 1881. The house is opened on the 9th July 1881. 1927 – Certificate Of Title V398 F266 is now issued.

This records a new group of Methodist trustees, who are James Pitcaithly (a butcher), John Richard Webb (a grocer), James H Buckley (a labourer), William Brown (a builder), William Radcliffe (an undertaker), William T Foster (a store man), W T Hustch (a railway worker), F J Page (a coal merchant), TAF Garlick (an engineer), O.G Skinner (a labourer), J T Norton (a baker), W L Gower(a confectioner), F Coleman (a stevedore).

The next entry is in 1963 to the Roman Catholic Church. From 1980 until 2011 this house was the convent for the Sisters of Mercy.

Architectural Features

A large symmetrical 2 storey square house with a bell cast veranda. The original entranceway has been retained: a large front door with coloured side light vanes. The sash windows have been replaced in more recent years. (See 1980 photograph below).In the kitchen (back of lower storey, right hand side) prior to the earthquakes of 2011 this was fully lined with tongue and groove, even the ceiling. The fireplace had the original coal range, that was fully functioning, Sister Thecla did all the community baking in this every week. An oral history recording taken of Sister Thecla (by Liza Rossie in 2005) is available in the oral history collection at the University of Canterbury MacMillan Brown Library. It is also stored by Lyttelton Museum.

In the memorial garden is a kōwhai tree and information plaque in honour of Sister Thecla.