There is considerable doubt if a church was built at Leithfield or if there is confusion with nearby Brackenbridge. However two sources do name Leithfield as having a church.
Bishop Redwood’s 1878 report on the Parishes in what he was proposing would become the Christchurch diocese referred to Leithfield: “At Leithfield, in the neighbourhood of Amberley, there is a neat wooden chapel, poorly furnished in requisites. It is attended once a month. Congregation small and scattered. Sufficient land belonging to the Catholic Church in this locality.”
He does not mention the nearby Brackenbridge church, then 10 years old, and some doubt remains if these were in fact one and the same.
However, Fr M. O’Meeghan, Held Firm by Faith, says about Rangiora parish “By 1877 it had Binsfeld as resident priest, and ten years later had dependent churches at Kaiapoi, Leithfield, Loburn, Oxford, Brackenfield and Hawarden.”
