Christ Church

Christ Church, Coseley

Christ Church is a parish church designed by Thomas Lee (Junior) of Barnstaple and London, built between 1827 and 1830. It is constructed of Gornal stone with slate roofs.

The church comprises a galleried four-bay nave with two-and-a-half bay chancel, six-bay aisles (now with a chapel and organ chamber at their east ends), and a west tower. The exterior features plain ashlar stone sides with solid parapets. The aisles are lit by six tall narrow lancets without tracery or cusping, separated by slim buttresses between each bay. The chancel projects slightly and is flanked by low square vestry-like additions, with the southern addition forming part of the Lady Chapel added in 1910. The chancel's east gable has small pinnacles and a five-light window with elaborate Decorated tracery and a lower frieze of blind panels, dating from around 1906. The tower is tall and slim, comprising four stages with string courses wrapping around angle buttresses at each stage. It features a west door, a window above, a low clock stage, and twin louvred belfry lights. The parapets are embattled with heavy polygonal corner pinnacles and intermediate pinnacles on each face.

The interior is light and spacious, with six-bay Perpendicular-style arcades on the north and south sides. The piers have four attached shafts with high octagonal plinths and moulded arches. Original galleries on three sides feature attractive blind Gothic ogee arcading on their fronts. The upper part of the west wall has two blind Gothic window frames with ogee arches and large cusps, possibly designed for texts or benefaction boards. The two eastern bays of the arcades were divided off to serve as the chancel (marked by large ceiling brackets above the screen, probably dating from 1866); a short extension to the sanctuary was added at the same date. The nave has flat ceilings with two ventilation roses, while the chancel ceiling has ribbed panels painted blue and gilded with stars, reflecting the decorative scheme carried out by Tatlows of Wolverhampton in 1866. The east end of the south aisle is partitioned to form a Lady Chapel, with a large arch piercing the east wall to unify it with the former vestry beyond, which now serves as a sanctuary. This arrangement began during a restoration in 1888 and continued through 1897 and 1906-10. Wood block floors were installed throughout the nave around 1966-70; the chancel retains good encaustic tiles dating from around 1890-1910.

The chancel and south chapel contain major works of Arts and Crafts design. The reredos is a high, pinnacled oak piece with a central relief of the Last Supper, dating from around 1906. Sanctuary panelling completed the scheme in the 1950s. The east window is a densely populated design by Morris & Company, 1906. A fine rood screen of 1904, carved by Advent Hunstone and based on Perpendicular examples at Tideswell, Derbyshire and Huyton, Lancashire, has a rood group added in 1924. The pulpit, made by Jones & Willis in 1906, is carved oak. The octagonal font has quatrefoil panels and a pierced oak cover. Stained glass in the aisles is largely late 19th or early 20th century, with the exception of a large window titled 'Beloved Physician' by Hardman of Birmingham, dating from 1957, in the south aisle. The Lady Chapel fittings represent a tour-de-force of Edwardian design, with a glazed screen in the upper parts of the two arches into the chancel, dating from 1897. The panelling and canopied framing to the arched opening in the east wall date from 1910 and include a painted Ascension by Florence Camm of Smethwick, and a south window by her brother Thomas W. Camm titled 'Easter Morn', exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1910. A tower clock by Samuel Underhill of Wolverhampton dates from 1830.

The church was enlarged by William Bourne of Dudley in 1866. The interior was reordered by W.A. Bonney of Rugeley in 1888, by Wood & Kendrick of West Bromwich in 1897, and by A.T. Butler of Cradley Heath in 1910.

Coseley was medieval part of the manor of Sedgley and a possession of the lords of Dudley Castle. Coal mining and iron working were recorded in the reign of Edward I. Industrialisation drove dramatic population increases, and a church was proposed in 1825. Subscriptions originally raised for rebuilding All Saints, Sedgley, were diverted to a church at Coseley when Lord Dudley and Ward decided to fund Sedgley himself and gave the site for Coseley. The foundation stone was laid on 9th August 1827, and the new church was consecrated on 27th August 1830. The Church Building Commissioners contributed £8,632 towards the final cost of £10,700. The church seated 2,000. Thomas Lee may have been introduced through John Turton Fereday, a churchwarden at Sedgley Church in 1826 and at Netherton, Dudley, in 1827. Coseley became a separate parish in 1832. Albert T. Butler, who practised in Cradley Heath until 1911 and then in Dudley, designed several chapels in a picturesque Free Style with hints of Art Nouveau.