Church Name: St Thomas More
Mass was celebrated at Waterton as early as 1888 when the Ashburton parish administrator, Fr Nicholas Binsfeld SM, received complaints from Catholics at Longbeach and Waterton that Mass had never been said there. The first Mass in the Waterton Hall had a congregation of about 60. In later years the nearby Eiffelton School and the Eiffelton Hall became Mass centres.
On June 4, 1961, 300 people were present at Eiffelton for the opening of the Church of St Thomas More by Bishop Joyce, assisted by Ashburton parish priest Fr Gordon Daly and Fr Gerard Kane.
Seating 80, the church had originally been the refectory block of the old Ashburton convent. The land near the Eiffelton Hall had been donated by Gerald McQuilkin.
With the establishment of the Tinwald parish in June 1965 the Eiffelton church became part of that parish. From the early 1970s Mass was celebrated only monthly and on November 7, 1976 the church was closed, the final Mass being celebrated by Tinwald parish priest Fr Patrick Foley.
The altar from the church went to the Hinds church and the building was moved once again, to a site further along Longbeach Road, to become part of the Eiffelton scout den.
