Apart from three years as a boarder at St Patricks College, Silverstream in Wellington, Mr Pigou spent all his life committed to his family, the sheep and beef farm at 'Woodlands' on Selmes Road, and to the wider Marlborough region. Read More

The church has been shut since May after it was initially assessed as being about 8 per cent of the building code and at risk of collapse in a significant earthquake.

The steeple was an area of concern, as was how the roof and walls connected.

Father Bill Warwick, the parish priest, told parishioners last Sunday that the parish knew it had work to do to get the building up to code. A parish working group had been formed.

Project Stronger spokesman David Mullin said a detailed study of the church confirmed the initial assessment.

Mr Mullin said St Mary's was due for significant maintenance work and the "significant strengthening" work needed as part of the quake response would be dealt with as part of that maintenance.

Project Stronger is the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington's response to the Christchurch earthquakes.

Source

• The Marlborough Express
• Image: The Marlborough Express

Meat defrosts slowly on the bench for the evening meal that Nicola will prepare for husband Randal and children Samalah, 23 and Daniel, 21. After dinner, there is no television to distract from evening activities, conversation or a good book at the kitchen table.

A humble space, the kitchen is clearly the heart of this Renwick home, reflecting the lifestyle and beliefs the Gray family hold, beliefs based on traditional Christian values and a determination to retain close family bonds in a fast-paced world.

The Grays took seven years to build their ideal home, which began life as part of St Mary's Catholic Church in Blenheim.

Nuns taught singing and music underneath the sharply pitched roof, the sound tempered by acoustic tiles almost 5m high.

An elderly nun once told Nicola that among the many voices that rang out between the old walls were those of the Vienna Boys' Choir, which gave a private performance for the nuns.

In the late 1980s the music room, along with two other buildings, became surplus to requirement and were put up for tender to be moved off the site.

For Nicola and her husband Randal, the timing could not have been better. They had bought a patch of bare land on the eastern end of Renwick's High St and were looking for a way to build within their financial constraints. Those constraints were severe, as the Grays do not believe in mortgages, so everything they bought came from money already earned.

When Nicola and Randal inspected the music hall they found an empty, unfurnished building that was long and narrow and would certainly provide a challenging layout for a family home. They put in a tender and sat back to wait for the answer in a manner so fitting for the building: "We're Christians so we left it up to the Lord really," says Nicola. Read more

Sources

• Article and image: Stuff