St John the Baptist Church, Ohau

Designed by Frederick de Jersey Clere, the church was dedicated in 1901, and consecrated on 29 March 1905 by Bishop Wallis, Bishop of Wellington.

According to the Heritage Trail Plaque outside the church:

St John's the Baptist's Church was built in 1902 for approximately 250 pounds on land given for the purpose by pioneer settlers, Mr. and Mrs. John Kebbell.

The timber used was carted free of charge from the local mill. The church bell was given in memory of Sir Walter Buller and the stained glass windows behind the altar were given by the Kebbell family. The font was carved by Mr. Jenkins, the proprietor of the local store. The original lamps used for lighting before the advent of electricity, are now the brass flower vases.

Extensive restoration work was carried out in 1973/74.

A Centennial Service was held on Sunday 3 April, 2005.

In her book The Churches of Frederick de Jersey Clere published in 2003, Susan McLean describes the church:

'Although it was not built until 1901, the church of St John the Baptist was designed in 1898. One of a chain of churches stretching from New Plymouth to Wellington, it sits near the main highway between Levin and Manakau. It merits more than a glimpse – turn at the Muhunoa crossroads for a closer look.

'Against the backdrop of the Tararua ranges the western facade is particularly effective in the afternoon light. The tiny bell-tower, in keeping with the modest scale of the building, is an example of the varied designs Clere introduced. (There is one like it, yet differing in detail, a few kilometres away at Shannon). Under the roof gable with its diagonal braces are triple windows surmounted by a sunhood and below them a little lean-to porch. The smaller gable over the door echoes the roofline and four wide windows in the porch pick up the shape of the door. Crossed lines in the window pane repeat the crosses of the unusual stick-work on the cladding below. It sounds busy, but the west elevation is so harmoniously composed that it works well. It is one of Clere's most charming country churches and one of his smallest, the nave measuring only 25 by 20 feet. By 1898 Clere was well-established in Wellington and was no longer dependent on small commissions like this for his bread and butter. The attention he gave to this building is a measure of his integrity and love of his job.

'The church was erected on land gifted by John Kebbell and the church was erected by a Mr Arcus for the cost of £256. With the usual solid support of a rural community the debt was quickly paid off, and the church was consecrated in 1905.

'The familiar Clere elements are within the building too: the scissor-braced roof, lancet windows in their pointed frames, rectangular chancel, the architect's oft-repeated design for pews and altar rail. The interior has remained plain, the only additions to the walls of the nave being the roll of honour for the world wars and the plaque registering the gift of the church bell in memory of their father by the sons of Sir Walter Buller, the famous authority on New Zealand birds, who owned the land at Lake Papaitonga nearby. There is a fine east window from James Powell & Sons of Whitefriars studios in London. It was installed in memory of three children of John and Mary Grace Kebbell: a son who died at Gallipoli and two daughters who drowned in the Ohau river in 1890.'

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