Christ Church And Churchyard Railings

Christ Church is an 1841 chapel of ease built in the Early English style by Edmund Sharpe of Lancaster for the Weaver Navigation Trustees. The cruciform building is constructed of tooled ashlar with ashlar dressings and has Welsh slate roofs with coped gables. It comprises a chancel, transepts, nave, south porch, and a west tower with a spire. Windows are pointed arched with hood moulds and, mostly, simple tracery.

The single-bay chancel features a traceried, three-light east window with shafts and a cusped trefoil above. The single-bay transepts have angle buttresses, and gables with three-light windows and trefoils above. The four-bay nave has two-light windows separated by buttresses. The gabled south porch has a chamfered and moulded pointed arched doorway with a hood mould under a coped gable; the doorway is now blocked, along with the single lancets on each side.

The three-stage west tower has gabled angle buttresses and string courses. The lower stage contains blind trefoils and a segment-headed door to the north, with a pair of blocked single lights to the west. The middle stage has a trefoil to the south and single-light windows to the north and south. The bell stage has two-light pointed arched bell openings on each side; the south opening contains an inserted clock. The octagonal broach spire has three tiers of gabled lucarnes, a finial, and a cross.

The interior, which was inaccessible at the time of survey, includes flanking blind arcades beneath the east window, all under a linked hood mould. Nave and chancel arches are chamfered and moulded, the nave arch having a hood mould and impost band. The nave and transepts have strutted kingpost roofs that intersect at the crossing. The south transept contains an organ and screen, forming a vestry, while some original seating remains in the north transept.

Outside, the church stands within a rectangular plot with chamfered corners, which is enclosed by a spiked wrought iron railing with curved supports. A pair of matching gates are situated on the south side.