The church of St Peter's in the Forest is situated 50 kilometres south of Auckland City and close to the northern boundary of the Bombay-Pokeno parish. It is easy to find being approximately 1.2km from the State Highway 1 motorway and accessed using the Bombay off-ramps (#471). There is ample parking roadside and in the church carpark.



In early 1866 Bishop Augustus Selwyn paid a walking visit to Bombay (then known as Williamson's Clearing). He decided that a place of worship should be built there, halfway between Drury and the Waikato River, in the neighbourhood of the immigrants from the ship Bombay who had settled there in 1865. The foundation stone was laid on March 8, 1867 and dedicated in October 1867. It was used then as a meeting place, and a school as well as a spiritual centre. Although built in the Selwyn era the building does not have the traditional Selwyn architectural appearance as seen around Auckland churches of that time.



The church is notable for the many generous benefactors it has had ranging from a beautiful brass lectern and carved altar frontal to stained glass windows. This includes the fine East Window given by the Misses Wright, from Broughton, England in 1906. The window was made by Mrs Heaton, Butler and Bell of London and the design is the Ascension of our Saviour. The inscription "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" is taken from Matthew chapter 28 verse 20.



The cemetery is well maintained with the local Lions group helping to keep the headstones clean. The cemetery comprises of three memorial areas - Old, New and Columbarium Wall. The Old area runs the full depth of the church property. The New area is immediately behind the church and the Columbarium Wall is located behind bush beside the church entrance. The Columbarium Wall is not visible until immediately beside it. The Old area has row number markers from row 1 at the top to 16 at the bottom. The rows are double sided rows. The New area has no row markers but has long concrete rows ready for use and are single sided rows. There are several plaques inside the church to commemorate those who went to World War I along with various members of the clergy and congregation. The Old Area of the cemetery has numerous unidentified burial plots including some that have been concreted but memorials not erected or long ago deteriorated and gone.



The earliest death date recorded is 12 June 1862 (Thomas Lloyd Mandeno, Old Area, Row 5). The cemetery continues to operate to this day (December 2020) with body and ash internments.