Christ Church

Christ Church is a church of 1854, designed by Coe and Godwin and funded by Mrs. Teresa Newcomen. A later 19th-century organ chamber was added. The church is built of squared random sandstone rubble with Bath stone dressings and has Welsh slate roofs. It comprises a west tower, a clerestoried and aisled nave with a south porch, and a chancel with a south organ chamber and a north vestry, all executed in the Decorated style with reticulated tracery.

The four-stage tower features a double-chamfered plinth, angle buttresses with offsets, a vice at the south-west angle, and a stone broach spire topped with an ornamented metal finial. A double-chamfered doorway is located below a chamfered window on the west side. The third stage has three lancet windows on each face, with openwork clock faces on the north, south, and west sides. Chamfered bell openings have tracery and a sill band. The four-bay nave and aisles have offset buttresses between bays, and the clerestory windows are triangular with curved sides. The gabled porch has boarded double doors with ornamented strap hinges set within a chamfered surround. A lower two-bay chancel and organ chamber are present, along with a lateral stack on the north side, and the roof is finished with crested ridge tiles. Cross finials adorn the nave and chancel, while the gabled vestry exhibits diagonal buttresses.

Inside, the church is plastered with Caen stone dressings. Double-chamfered arcades rest on foliate capitals atop compound piers, with a continuous hoodmould incorporating bosses and mask stops. The clerestory has a sill string, and a tall tower arch holds a glazed wood screen. The chancel arch has compound responds on enriched corbels. Mintons encaustic tiled floors are found in the chancel and sanctuary. The nave roof is a double-framed braced collar structure with two levels of purlins, ashlar pieces, curved braces, wall posts on moulded corbels. There is good contemporary stained glass in the nave, along with windows dating from 1858 by G.W. Terry and Fussel and Clouser (London), and 1865 by Wailes (Newcastle). The font, pulpit, sedilia, reredos, and piscina were all crafted in 1865 by Sir Gilbert Scott. The plain octagonal font sits on four engaged shafts, while the octagonal pulpit drum rests on six engaged shafts, featuring offset buttresses and carved panels. The three-bay sedilia has trefoil-headed openings with angels in the spandrels. The three-bay reredos is ogee-headed and flanked by traceried niches with angels in spandrels. A similar piscina, now altered to an aumbry, has a foliate bowl and an Art Nouveau repousé pewter panel on the door. Crocketed foliate canopies and finials are common to the sedilia, reredos, aumbry, and pulpit panels. A richly carved rood beam from 1922 features pendant vaulting, drop tracery, brattishing, and a rood flanked by figures of saints.

The church is historically significant as it is associated with the Christ Church Sisterhood, the first Anglican religious community in the north, who provided a hospital and medical services. It also holds value as a local landmark.