Christchurch

534/0/10001 01-SEP-03

NORTHWOLD WHITTINGTON Christchurch

II

Church. 1874-5. By RM Phipson. Random knapped flint with limestone and some brick dressings. Plain tile roof in lines of two alternating shades of tile. Stone coped gables with kneelers and decorative ridge tiles. Plan of nave with chancel in one. West porch flanked by recessed porticus under lean-to roofs. Buttresses with set-offs. Windows have fine decorated tracery with curvilinear elements. EXTERIOR. Fine 4-light east window with delicate tracery of trilobes set in spherical triangles. Cross finial on gable. 4 3-light nave windows. West wall has 3-light window with gable surmounted by moulded stone bell-cote crowned with a foliated cross. Below is the unusual gabled porch feature with moulded 2-centre arched doorway surmounted by an elaborate cross and the porticus either side with a buttress as the end walls. INTERIOR. Elaborate roof divided into 7 bays by principal arch-braced trusses on wall posts with intermediate scissor-braced trusses. Vestry formed by carved wooden screen in Gothic manner around entrance to north western porticus. Original moulded pine pews and carved polygonal pulpit. Low communion rail. Carved royal arms recessed above west door. A finely detailed and virtually unaltered church by the prolific architect Richard Makilwaine Phipson, (1827-84), who was well-known for restorations and new buildings mainly in East Anglia.