St Andrews church was built in 1883 by William Beton and designed by Fredrick Clere. Clere was responsible for over 100 churches in the southern North Island all of which are of this typical "country" design. Each church was built as an "economical unostentatious" wooden structure with pointed arches, intresting roof trusses and belfries.
This church was named after John and Henrietta Martin who had been married in a similarly named church in Nelson NZ.
In 1925 during a service a gale shifted the church off it's foundations so buttressess were added.
The stained glass windows were installed as a memorial to the dead of all wars in 1950