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St John's Cromwell
The discovery of gold at the junction of the Kawarau and Clutha Rivers in 1862 brought so many miners into the area that borough was declared four years later. The settlement was known as The Point, the Junction, and Kawarau before being officially named Cromwell. Captain Jackson Barry was the first mayor.
Rev. Charles Connor visited the area in 1864, travelling on horseback through the Waitaki Valley and the Lindis Pass. Rev. Benjamin Drake was invited to Cromwell and welcomed with a temporary manse and a horse in 1868. A Congregational minister from Essex who had emigrated to Tasmania then to New Zealand his repeated applications to the Synod tobecome a Presbyterian minister were turned down.
Rev. John Ryley of Otepopo and AB Todd of Oamaru visited the goldfields in 1872, and recommended that Mr Drake be formally recognised. In 1874 he was received into the ministry and Cromwell declared a congregation of the Presbyterian Church when he was 65.
Drake first preached at the schoolhouse at the river junction, moving to the stone schoolrooms in Sligo Street when they were built in 1875. The Anglicans and Roman Catholics also used the first schoolhouse, the three groups pooling money for a harmonium. They agreed that whoever stayed longest in the school house could keep it. The Catholic church was built in 1870, the Anglican church in 1874, and St John's in 1881, and a manse and Sunday School some years later.
Mr Drake resigned in 1878, staying in Cromwell and taking an active interest in church life.
The following year tenders were called for a stone church, 50 feet by 30, with a 54-foot bell tower. FW Burwell was appointed architect, and Grant and McKellar the builders. The bell was cast by Messrs Burt of Dunedin. That same month, Rev. James Blackie, a farmer who became one of the first students of the Theological Hall in Dunedin, was ordained and inducted as Cromwell's Presbyterian minister.
The new Gothic-style church was opened 1 April 1881.
Mr Blackie was acclaimed for his violin-cello playing and his horsemanship. He was often asked to break horses in. He took a deep interest in the large numbers of Chinese in the district, enlisting their help in building the church.
Originally the church was lit by bracket lamps with a handsome chandelier and pendant lamp in the centre. In 1915 acetylene gas was installed, and electric lights in the 1920s. Rev. AR Chisholm, inducted in 1926, was the first Cromwell Presbyterian minister to use a car.
The Crown Terrace School was bought for £25 and transported to Cromwell over the Crown Range in the 1950s, meeting a snowstorm on the way, and later dismantled.
The parish embraced charismatic worship in the 1970s and 1980s. The Clyde Dam Project had a significant impact on the church. New residents from different denominations converged on the Cromwell Presbyterian Church.
St John's now overlooks Lake Dunstan. It was clear that the congregation needed a new building that was larger and closer to the new town. The Congregation moved to a modern building and the stone church was sold in 2004. The community helped in putting up the shell of the building in a "barn-raising" style over a weekend in 2007.
Rev. Charles Connor visited the area in 1864, travelling on horseback through the Waitaki Valley and the Lindis Pass. Rev. Benjamin Drake was invited to Cromwell and welcomed with a temporary manse and a horse in 1868. A Congregational minister from Essex who had emigrated to Tasmania then to New Zealand his repeated applications to the Synod tobecome a Presbyterian minister were turned down.
Rev. John Ryley of Otepopo and AB Todd of Oamaru visited the goldfields in 1872, and recommended that Mr Drake be formally recognised. In 1874 he was received into the ministry and Cromwell declared a congregation of the Presbyterian Church when he was 65.
Drake first preached at the schoolhouse at the river junction, moving to the stone schoolrooms in Sligo Street when they were built in 1875. The Anglicans and Roman Catholics also used the first schoolhouse, the three groups pooling money for a harmonium. They agreed that whoever stayed longest in the school house could keep it. The Catholic church was built in 1870, the Anglican church in 1874, and St John's in 1881, and a manse and Sunday School some years later.
Mr Drake resigned in 1878, staying in Cromwell and taking an active interest in church life.
The following year tenders were called for a stone church, 50 feet by 30, with a 54-foot bell tower. FW Burwell was appointed architect, and Grant and McKellar the builders. The bell was cast by Messrs Burt of Dunedin. That same month, Rev. James Blackie, a farmer who became one of the first students of the Theological Hall in Dunedin, was ordained and inducted as Cromwell's Presbyterian minister.
The new Gothic-style church was opened 1 April 1881.
Mr Blackie was acclaimed for his violin-cello playing and his horsemanship. He was often asked to break horses in. He took a deep interest in the large numbers of Chinese in the district, enlisting their help in building the church.
Originally the church was lit by bracket lamps with a handsome chandelier and pendant lamp in the centre. In 1915 acetylene gas was installed, and electric lights in the 1920s. Rev. AR Chisholm, inducted in 1926, was the first Cromwell Presbyterian minister to use a car.
The Crown Terrace School was bought for £25 and transported to Cromwell over the Crown Range in the 1950s, meeting a snowstorm on the way, and later dismantled.
The parish embraced charismatic worship in the 1970s and 1980s. The Clyde Dam Project had a significant impact on the church. New residents from different denominations converged on the Cromwell Presbyterian Church.
St John's now overlooks Lake Dunstan. It was clear that the congregation needed a new building that was larger and closer to the new town. The Congregation moved to a modern building and the stone church was sold in 2004. The community helped in putting up the shell of the building in a "barn-raising" style over a weekend in 2007.
D-P110-1Cromwell Presbyterian Church in autumn, circa 1995, from the church profile.
D-P110-1
St John's Cromwell. Presbyterian Research Centre, accessed 30/07/2026, https://pcanzarchives.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/115684
