Christ Church Non-Conformist Church

Christ Church Non-conformist Church

A Presbyterian Church, now United Reformed, built in 1895. The building is constructed of stone with a pitch pine roof, featuring a belfry, spire and decorative dressings in the Gothic Revival style.

The church is rectangular in plan, oriented with the pulpit at the north end and the main entrance facing south. The south gable end forms the principal front, comprising five bays with a string course, continuous hood mould, buttresses and plinth. The central three bays are occupied by an attached single-storey porch with a gabled centre bay, buttressed on the left side. A central pointed arched entrance has a drip mould with carved stops. The porch end bays contain two-light mullioned windows with dripstones. Above the porch sit two tall windows with plate tracery. To the right of the porch stands a slightly projecting tower with angle buttresses. The south face of the tower has single and paired pointed arches at ground and first floor levels. The third storey contains a belfry with triple pointed arches on colonettes within a chamfered rectangular recess, with louvered openings and solid stone heads. The tower is crowned by a broach spire with lucarne. The return walls on each side have five bays with alternating cross gables between buttresses, topped with triangular ashlar heads. Windows alternate between short paired lancets and triple lancets with plate tracery. The right return contains a second porch at its end bay. Adjoining the church to the rear is a cross wing of three bays forming a hall with a large centrally placed three-light lancet window flanked by single lancets. A two-storey stone extension extends from the west side.

Internally, the main front entrance leads through a vestibule with terrazzo flooring and original leaded glass doors into the body of the church. The walls are plain and half-panelled throughout. All windows are deeply inset, with the only elaboration being hood moulds over the south windows with decorative stops. A stained glass rose window in the north wall features simple decorative mouldings and carved stops. The main space is filled with three rows of benches separated by two narrow aisles. The benches have close-boarded backs, book rests and simple moulded edges. The pulpit at the north end is ornately panelled with pierced quatrefoils, blind tracery and plain panels below, reached by a stair with newel posts and carved balusters. Behind and above the pulpit stands the original Harrison and Harrison organ, accessed by stairs flanked by rails of carved balusters and splat newel posts topped with ball finials. The organ has been re-sited as it originally obscured the rose window. Choir benches flank either side of the pulpit. The entire space is covered by a pitch pine roof supported on decorative corbels and braced with metal ties running its length.

Behind the main church, a corridor leads to small service rooms and a vestry on the left. The vestry contains panelled doors, deep cornices and an original fireplace. Beyond is a room, formerly divided into two, now serving as a kitchen with plain cornicing, skirting boards, a fireplace and chimney breast. Further back is a large hall with pitch pine roof and roof lights. The walls are plain and a wheel window occupies the west wall.

The church has remained largely unaltered since its construction. It represents a high-quality example of Gothic Revival church design, enhanced by the survival of a simple interior with a suite of well-executed wooden fittings that remain substantially unchanged from the original scheme.