Christ Church

Christ Church is an Anglican church of mid to later 18th-century date, incorporating a fragment of a mid-17th-century church built by Robert Morley and completed by Robert Trollope. The tower and extensive rebuilding were undertaken by John Dodds in 1786-88 and 1792-3 respectively, in a neo-classical style. The building has undergone alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The church is built in sandstone ashlar with a plinth and rusticated quoins, with Westmorland slate roofs. The plan comprises a west tower, an aisled nave with an apsed chancel containing a half-octagonal north organ chamber (now chapel), and a large extension added in the late 20th century to the north.

The three-stage tower features a west double door beneath an ornamental fanlight, flanked by large blind roundels with a further large roundel above. The first stage contains a round-headed window with keystoned surrounds and clock faces on each face, while the upper stage has belfry openings beneath a cornice and battlemented parapet. It is surmounted by a weathercock finial and an early 21st-century flagpole. The three-bay nave is flanked by full-height aisles. The central bay projects slightly and is quoined, with a double door and ornamental fanlight. Above this is a stone tablet bearing a sundial flanked by Ionic pilasters, inscribed with the church's foundation date and record of major additions. A roundel and upper roundel accent this bay. The flanking bays contain tall round-headed windows with smaller gallery windows below, and similar windows appear in the side returns, single-bay chancel, and stepped apse. The nave, aisles, and chapel have hipped roofs, except the chancel which has a roundel. A rainwater head dated 1832, found in the angle of the chancel and south aisle, may have been re-sited from an earlier, smaller chancel.

Inside, plainly painted plaster walls and flat corniced ceilings predominate throughout. The nave ceiling bears egg-and-dart and Greek key stucco decoration, while the chancel ceiling features Trinity motifs. Numerous 18th and 19th-century memorials line the walls. The chancel has a modified arch and 20th-century fittings, with a tripartite east window containing stained glass by Leonard Evetts depicting the Apocalypse, with panelled work below. To the left is a mid-20th-century seamen's chapel separated from the chancel by an oak and wrought iron screen decorated with tridents and stars, topped with two 19th-century model sailing ships with local connections. The carved decoration above the chapel entrance incorporates the Coat of Arms of Tynemouth Monastery and sea motifs. The chapel's east window, also designed by Leonard Evetts, shows three lifeboats marking important stages of Tynemouth's lifeboat service history: the Original (1789), the Constance (1862), and the Tynesider (1962). Most stained glass throughout the church dates to the post-war period, with the exception of some coloured stained glass on the north wall.

The elliptical-arched nave arcades are carried on slender Tuscan columns, while the inserted west gallery, supporting the extended 19th-century organ, rests on cast iron columns. Beneath the gallery are the village stocks and the Milbourne Tombstone (1689). Original entrances with classical doorcases are positioned at the centre of the north and south aisles, and to the right of the latter stands an 18th-century font comprising a small fluted bowl on a moulded pedestal. Two stone grave covers are set into the floor at the east end of the nave: one for Stephen Dockwray, vicar (died 1681, now partly missing), and another for members of the Howlett family (died 1683 and 1694). The tower contains a stone winder staircase lined with cow hair plaster, and retains its original clock and bells within their original frame.