Christ Church

Christ Church is a church built between 1851 and 1852 by H Stevens of Derby for the Butterley Iron Company. It is constructed of ashlar with a 20th-century concrete tile roof, featuring chamfered stone copings to the gables on moulded kneelers, ridge crosses, and coved eaves bands. The church includes a three-stage west tower and a seven-bay nave with central transeptal bays and a small, canted bay chancel. The tower has stepped buttresses extending to the bell stage, and a polygonal staircase turret with a lapped stone roof and small slit windows to the southwest corner, with chamfered bands separating the stages. The tower’s first stage has a double-chamfered pointed western door with a hoodmould and head stops, above which is a three-light cusped traceried window with a similar hood and stops. The second stage features circular windows to the west and north sides, with a clockface to the south, all beneath hoodmoulds with head stops. The bell stage has two adjoining two-light pointed Perpendicular traceried openings with louvres set in cavetto moulded surrounds on each side. A coved stringcourse with central and corner gargoyles sits above, along with embattled parapets and a pyramidal roof. The north elevation has six recessed and chamfered cross windows with continuous hoods, three on either side of an advanced gabled bay. This bay has a continuous sill stringcourse and a pointed two-light Perpendicular traceried north window with a hoodmould and head stops. The nave and bay incorporate stepped diagonal buttresses to the corners. An advanced gabled vestry is located to the east, with a diagonal buttress to the corner, a four-centred arched north door, and a two-light flat-headed east window with trefoil-headed lights. The east end features a canted bay with stepped buttresses to each corner and large, flat-headed two-light Perpendicular traceried windows with long hoodmoulds. A coved eaves band with corner gargoyles is present above. The south elevation is similar to the north but lacks the vestry and features a four-centred arched doorcase below a two-light window in the gabled central bay. The interior has a wide nave with a shallow-pitched ribbed roof and four-centred arches leading into the transeptal bays, the chancel bay, and the tower. An arcaded gallery is situated on timber piers to the west end. The chancel has a ribbed timber roof and stained glass windows dating to around 1850 by Klarrington of London. The fittings are mostly plain, and include an octagonal timber pulpit and an octagonal stone font with carved sides to the bowl. Later 19th and 20th-century wall memorials are also present.