Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The recorded history of the Catholic Church in Richmond goes back to 1856 when the first piece of land was purchased for the building of a church. There were few Catholic families in Richmond at that time and so the land was leased out.

Mass was celebrated in family homes until the purchase of a hall in Oxford Street in 1939. Richmond with Stoke, Wakefield, Waimea West and Tapawera became a separate Parish in 1960. The present church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was opened in 1976.