St Mark's Church, Lepperton.

On Saturday, for the tail end of the garden festival, we went to St Mark's Church in Lepperton. It was a beautiful afternoon,  just right for spending the afternoon sketching. The church was dressed for a country wedding.

This Anglican church in Lepperton is thought to have opened in May 1900 with a dedication service on the 18th of January 1901.
It is likely that the church was designed by the architect Frank Messenger and built by a Mr Mannix. Church records have been located showing a £5.00 payment to "Mr Messenger". Tenders for the construction of a church in Lepperton closed on the 11th of October 1899 - the tenders to be submitted to Frank Messenger.

Here is my sketch:

 And here are some photos:

Inside, there was a handmade wedding dress that had been made for a wedding in the 1950's:

They also laid on the most wonderful afternoon tea! Here are a few photos taken by Sarah Davison.

Lepperton Ride-On Lawnmower Race Day

So we went to a country school gala day to draw. To those not in New Zealand, this is a school fair that is a fundraiser. The classic raffles, food, bouncy castles, and skill games are all there. But Lepperton turned this one up to eleven and had the 2nd annual Ride-On Lawnmower Grand Prix. It really is what you expect and what it sounds like. You can modify your tiny tractor to some degree but the engine has to be legit. Then they set up a race track in the sports field and say goodbye to the lawn.

Maybe it's a little bit bogan (which is a downunder redneck) but it's all good fun and raised thousands of dollars for this small rural school. It was really sunny and hot so I took some video so I could document this but not have to sit in the sun. I went to sit in the shade and did a drawing of the little kids quad bikes. This is where kids paid a few bucks to race around a circle of hay bales and tires on throttled-down mini quad bikes while wearing oversized helmets. Half of them loved it and the other half seemed terrified. They certainly weren't as fast as the real racers on the day but maybe one of these kids will get a chance to compete in the big leagues in a future gala day.

Indian Jeep

This Willy's Jeep with roll bars is an Indian made Mahindra C-4.  There was only one real prototype Willys Overland CJ-4 ever built.  Consequently dubbed the 'Forgotten Jeep'. This 1979 model was spotted at the Lepperton School country fundraiser.

Mahindra started life in 1945 as a steel trading company and won the contract to produe the Willys in 1947.  Based in Mumbai, they now have 180,000 employees world wide and are the biggest tractor producer globally and have fingers in many pies including aerospace.

CJ = civilian jeep
Jeep was said to have been coined by slurring the initials GP (General Purpose or Government Purposes).  Another theory was that it came from comic character Popeye's jungle pet, 'Eugene the Jeep', which was small and able to solve seemingly impossible problems.

Lepperton Fundraiser

A country town's fundraiser - in all its sunny glory

(Sketched by Patricia)