A 'once-a-country church' with a rich hundred and one years of history... 'Church on Church Rd' has been operating as a luxury bed & breakfast and boutique lodge since November 2006. This lovingly restored building is now a 290 square metre architecturally designed country homestead with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and incorporating two large guest suites. It hosts guests from throught NZ and all around the world. But it didn't start out this way...

It started out life as Fencourt Methodist Church, a small country church. It was built in 1907 by prominent families in the area who joined together to form the church building committee (see photo on right). The site chosen was the corner of what was... and still is... a fully operational dairy farm in Fencourt, a small rural community just 7km from Cambridge. A ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone was held prior to the opening on 25 September 1907. The Church was opened for public worship on Sunday 11 November 1907. The building’s title passed to the Methodist Church in 1913. Following the union of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Cambridge, the Fencourt church became part of Trinity St Paul’s Union Parish.

The original church is built of native NZ timber - heart rimu (which is the heart of the NZ native Rimu tree) and the harder native timber - Matai, which was used for it’s floors. It's dimensions were originally 60ft x 20ft with seating capacity for 100 people. The building was plain, typical of methodist churches of it's time, but decoratively lit by Gothic-style windows, glazed with tinted murineze glass. The church was a large part of the Fencourt community providing services and also serving as a community centre and social hall. The church was undenominational and some of its soundest supporters were adherents of other churches.

Between 1934-1935 a Church Hall was added to the building. In 1967 an application for a building permit was lodged with the Waikato County Council  to erect a classroom and toilets at the rear of the church. This was constructed as a ‘lean-to’ connected to the church hall. On 24 March 1996 the historic 89 year old church held its last service – the end of an era, brought about by falling congregation numbers. However, about 175 people turned out to attend the final service. The church was sold in December 1996 to new owners, with the blessing conducted by Mr Jack Wheki, a well-known local Maori leader (Komatua).

Stage one consisted of the complete restoration and refurbishment of the existing building and addition of the kitchen. The building needed re-piling, re-wiring, re-roofing and relining in some areas, although we have maintained much of the original wooden rimu tongue and groove walls. Stage two consisted of the building extensions, which include the addition of a formal dining room, garage and an upstairs apartment. The original structure, by now 99 years old, was remarkably very sound structurally. The 'lean-to' structure (built in 1967) wasn't, and had to be pulled down.