Christ Church

Christ Church is a parish church dating to 1835, designed by Edward Haycock. Constructed of red brick with red sandstone ashlar and later cement-rendered dressings, it has a slate roof. The church comprises a five-bay nave and chancel unified as one space, with a partly integral west tower in a classical style.

The two-stage tower features a stone impost band, a corbelled belfry with a string course, corner pilasters, frieze, cornice, and a steep pyramidal cap covered in fishscale slates and topped with a cross finial. Round-arched belfry openings with impost bands and moulded arches are situated on the east and west sides, featuring louvred details. A pair of diagonal match-boarded doors are set within a stone arch with a hoodmould to the west, accessed by a stone step. Above the west doorway is a stone half-H panel inscribed: "CHRIST CHURCH / ERECTED ANNO DOMINE / MDCCCXXXV / FROM DONATIONS BY THE LATE / EARL OF BRIDGEWATER". A circular painted wooden clock is positioned below the belfry to the west. The nave and chancel have a stone plinth, stone impost band, moulded stone eaves cornice, eaves band to the east, and a parapeted gable end to the west with moulded stone coping. A small integral brick end stack is present to the east. Five bays feature small-paned cast-iron windows with stone cills and brick arches; a pair of windows flank the tower on the west side. The central east window is round-arched with a cement-rendered architrave and stone cill, with a lower, small, round-arched window to the left and a boarded door to the right.

The interior, largely from 1835, incorporates later fittings. A moulded plaster cornice and ceiling rose are present. The short, square-ended chancel is framed by flanking piers with capitals and bases, supporting an entablature. An early 19th-century west gallery is supported by two attenuated cast-iron Doric columns, a frieze, and cornice, with a cast-iron balustrade consisting of six panels divided by colonnettes. A dog-leg staircase with a closed string and stick balusters leads to the gallery. A Gothic organ case is also present. A porch lies beneath the tower. The west doorway is accessed by a pair of late 19th or early 20th-century oak doors with a carved stone shield above.

Fittings include a tripartite reredos, 19th-century wrought-iron and wooden altar rails, an octagonal wooden pulpit, plain 19th-century pews, and an octagonal stone font inscribed: "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME", complete with a wooden cover. A step up to the chancel is adorned with encaustic tiles, and various early 19th-century memorial tablets are in place. The church stands near the site of an earlier chapel dedicated to Saint Giles. Tilstock became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1844. The design is a classical version of Christ Church, Ash, and shares a nearly identical plan, notably the partly integral tower.