This is the place

Te Waimate Mission was the first inland Anglican Mission Station and farm, founded in 1830 on behalf of the Church Mission Society by the Reverend Samuel Marsden with the agreement of local Nga Puhi. Te Waimate was the centre of a large Maori population and Marsden identified the site as early as 1820 as an ideal location for a mission station.

After negotiating the purchase of 1000 acres in 1830, the mission developed considerably as Marsden attempted to introduce Christianity to local Maori through the learning of other skills like farming, reading, writing and craft making. Roads, bridges, houses, a chapel and a schoolroom were all built to assist the development of those converted Maori as well as providing for the missionaries.

A farm was also established with a water mill to grind the wheat as well as blacksmith and wheelwright shops for the maintenance of tools.  Te Waimate Mission House, built in 1831-2, is the second oldest building in New Zealand, and is the only survivor of three mission houses that were built as part of the mission. It is thought to have been designed by missionary George Clarke and then built by Maori labourers under Clarke’s supervision. The original weatherboards, interior tongue and grove panelling, panelled doors, sash windows and curved staircase were all made of kauri timber. Clarke and his family lived in the house between 1832 and 1841, and for the first two years Reverend William Yate also lived with them.

The mission flourished in the early years but by the end of the 1830s it had declined in size and stature. There were difficulties with land clearance and soil fertility, and those Maori who had supported the mission also became wary of the settlers and their desire to acquire land.  A revival occurred in 1842, however, when Bishop Selwyn took over the small village as the headquarters for the Anglican Church. The bishop resided in the house and the other buildings formed St. John’s Theological College, which was later moved to Auckland. Bishop Selwyn left the mission in 1844 and a year later most of the buildings, fences and gardens were destroyed by the British troops that resided in the village during the war in the north in 1845.

The Mission House itself survived serious damage because of its occupant and guardian, the Reverend Robert Burrows. While there was once again an attempt to revive the mission, it failed to flourish and by the 1870s Te Waimate had become a quiet farming community. The other two misison houses were destroyed by fire in 1873 and dismantled in 1902 respectively, and most of the 1000 acre property was sold.  

The surviving mission house was taken over as the vicarage for the church of St. John the Baptist, although this was not the original church, having been rebuilt three times, the third time in 1871. In 1959 the “Old Vicarage” was taken over by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and was restored as much as possible to its original condition. The house is furnished with furniture and tools from the missionary period, and the rest of the once thriving Te Waimate village can be explored on an archaeological walk.

Nearby are the Bedggood buildings, where the remains of a cottage and reconstructed blacksmith’s shop show where missionary and wheelwright John Bedggood once worked and resided with his family.