Church Heritage Record 603003

Nave (and separated community area), short chancel, transepts, west porch. WC / kitchen facilities, rooms on first and ground floors.

Nave and chancel 10m (32ft) x 27m (88ft)

Christ Church was built in 1838-40 to designs by A Y Williams. The original building would have appeared very differently to what we see today. The west tower and spire were demolished in the 1950s due to an outbreak of dry rot and at this time the roof was lowered, the pinnacles removed and the windows covered with plastic. The entrances excepting that in the south transept are bricked up and this was presumably also carried out in the 1950s. A flat-roofed extension was added in 1968 at the west end and has since become the principal entrance.  This contains WC facilities which were added later. In 2001 the nave was screened off to create a community lounge and a lower ceiling introduced.

A truncated building which appears fully redundant from the outside. Bricked up entrances and blocked windows, albeit neatly and for the purpose of protection, do nothing to make this a welcoming building or indeed indicate that it is used at all. This Victorian, Commissioners-style building with tall paired lancets was at one time a much more impressive building with a west tower, spire and abundance of pinnacles; the latter were described by Pevsner as ‘clumsy’ but they are arguably preferable to the rather ordinary building before us today. The lowered roof now hangs down over the tips of the windows and cuts short the squared buttresses, which restricts the intended proportions.

The fenestration is simple and would once have been elegant and in keeping with the tall spire. The lancets are of equal width and can be found on the east face and the transepts in groups of three, with the central slightly taller (the main transeptal windows are set within a further pointed arch with tiny trefoils above the outer lancets). Elsewhere the windows are paired and of equal height: on the east faces of the transepts, the chancel walls and also in three pairs in the nave walls. The west faces of the transepts have shorter paired lancets and doorways below; the latter have pointed arches and simple moulding and are bricked up. Both the transepts have larger doorways with three orders of shafts in their north and south elevations but only the south is not bricked up (although it is not in use). The west porch has domestic rectangular windows but is flanked with small single lancets in the west wall and above the porch there is a further rectangular window.

Moving inside the building the porch has a modern feel with WC facilities. It leads into a vestibule which has offices to the south and a creche to the north; also to the south is a stairway to the upstairs rooms which are currently only to the west end of the building. A screen at the crossing has separated the nave into two parts and the western half is now a community area. There is a small kitchenette in the south-west corner. This section of the nave contains a set of stained glass windows: the eastern two of the three pairs on each side (see section below). The new ceiling is suspended so that the windows are still visible to full height but only when one is standing close enough to look up at them.

The worship area of the church has been reordered to fit within the reduced space of the crossing and the chancel and the pews are angled towards the chancel; the organ has been placed in the south transept. Both transepts have angled screening to create storage areas in the corners and the north also has a small chapel. The main east window contains stained glass as does the central panel of the south transept (see section below) but otherwise the windows are plain glazed and backed with vandalite plastic.

The nave and chancel are now quite simple in style; the only detail is the engaged cluster columns with moulded capitals that previously supported the vaulting and arcading and are now redundant, the capitals falling just short of the ceiling. A simple but large oak cross hangs on the partition wall which now forms the west end of the nave; the chancel fittings make a pleasant ensemble and are all in matching oak with carved tracery detailing.