Swannanoa Community Church

Faith and remembrance at Swannanoa

Swannanoa Community Church is a small country church, opened in 1873 as a Methodist church. It stands near Swannanoa School on Tram Road, with a historic cemetery beside it where early settler families and their descendants are laid to rest. Swannanoa takes its name from a river in North Carolina, brought here by the American settler who also paid for most of the church.

Our History

Swannanoa Church opened in 1873. It was built and used by the Methodist community of the Swannanoa district. Methodist churches in this area were historically served by the Kaiapoi Methodist Circuit, later the Kaiapoi Co-operating Parish.

"Yankee Brown"

John Evans Brown arrived in Canterbury in 1864. Locals called him "Yankee Brown". He farmed land owned by his brother-in-law, John Thomas Peacock, and named the farm after the Swannanoa River in western North Carolina. In January 1865 he was elected to the Rangiora and Mandeville Road Board. He also paid for most of the church.

When he returned to Asheville, North Carolina, he named his home there "Zealandia".

Swannanoa comes from the Cherokee Suwali-Nunna, usually explained as "trail of the Suwali people".

It referred to a mountain pass the Cherokee used to reach the Suwali tribe east of the mountains. The Peacock family held the farm land until 1903. The Petrie family has owned and run Swannanoa Farm since 1957.

A hundred years

The church marked its centenary with a service on 25 November 1973. A booklet was printed for the day, "The first hundred years": a story of faith and venture. A copy is held at the John Kinder Theological Library in Auckland.

The iron Centennial Fence most likely dates from the same celebration. Each panel carries the year 1873 in a round medallion, and a weathered plaque reads "Centennial Fence, in memory of…", with the surname now hard to make out under the lichen.

Timeline

1864John Evans Brown arrives in Canterbury.
1865Brown is elected to the Rangiora and Mandeville Road Board.
1873Swannanoa Methodist Church opens on Tram Road.
1903The Peacock family's ownership of the Swannanoa farm land ends.
1957The Petrie family begins to own and run Swannanoa Farm.
1973Centennial service on 25 November. The Centennial Fence likely dates from this year.

The long side of the church: white roughcast wall, four tall narrow windows and a steep green corrugated-iron roof — The nave, with its four tall windows.

The gable end of the church with a large pointed-arch window, and a small wing to one side — The gable end and its pointed-arch window.

The cemetery

The cemetery beside the church is the resting place of early settler families and their descendants, up to recent years. The earliest headstone photographed for this site is that of Thomas Burgin, who died on 30 May 1878, aged 52. A memorial wall with plaques stands at one side of the grounds. The photos below were taken in October 2026.

Rows of headstones on mown grass, with the white memorial wall at left and tall gum trees behind — The cemetery, with the memorial wall at left.

The white memorial wall with its name plate, planted with tussock grasses and a large agave — The memorial wall.

Plot plan

Find where each person is buried. Search for a name, or tap a shaded plot to see who rests there and a photo of the headstone. On a phone, swipe sideways to see the whole plan.

Headstones

Recorded burials

Search by name or year

Name	Died	Age	Headstone	Plot

This list includes everyone named on the headstones and memorial wall plaques photographed for this site, and is not a complete record. Where a stone gives only a first name, such as "wife of the above", the family surname is shown. Where an older stone is too worn to read, its details were checked against the transcription by transcriptions.nz. Where a stone gives only the years of birth and death, the age shown is approximate. For wider family research, the Waimakariri District Burial Records CD (NZ Society of Genealogists, Waimakariri branch, 2006) is available at Waimakariri libraries.