Christ Church

Christ Church is a parish church dating to 1839-41, designed by Anthony Salvin. Alexander Roos subsequently embellished and altered the building from 1840 to 1845 for A J Beresford Hope. Constructed of sandstone with a slate roof, the church comprises a chancel, nave, west tower, and a south-eastern vestry. Its design is of a simple, buttressed form, featuring a pierced parapet, a two-stage western tower with corner buttresses, a broach spire with lucarnes, and paired lancet belfry openings. A small rose window sits above the arched and hooded west entrance, which is enriched with ironwork of German design. Lancet windows are present throughout the building.

The church’s hammerbeam roof was commissioned from Salvin by Marshal Viscount Beresford, and later altered from 1840 by his stepson Beresford-Hope, in accordance with Ecclesiological principles, using numerous architects and craftsmen. The chancel became a particularly elaborate showpiece, separated from the nave by a screen designed by R C Carpenter, comprising seven open traceried and ogeed panels on either side of arched double doors. The screen incorporates linenfold lower panels and an embattled top beam, all heavily painted and enriched. Carved angels mark the ends of the hammerbeams in the chancel, differentiating them from the nave. The chancel floor and lower walls are adorned with patterned tiles and inscriptions. The stone altar, also by Salvin, is based on William of Wykeham's tomb in Winchester Cathedral. A trelobed piscina and enriched cusped sedilia are present, along with a richly decorated door to the vestry.

A reredos of 1869, designed by W Slater and carved by J F Redfern, depicts a Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saints, and Apostles. The stalls feature poppyheads, figures, and carved panels illustrating the stages of the cross, designed by Carpenter and executed, along with the screen, by a local craftsman, John Thomas. The Corona Lucis, designed by G.E. Street, and brass lectern and the pulpit, based on that at Beaulieu Abbey and projecting from the wall on four inclined shafts, are also by Butterfield. The church organ, initially installed in 1840, was moved to its current location in 1860 and enlarged in 1911, and its decorative panelling matches the enrichment elsewhere in the church.

Originally, the nave walls and ceiling were painted, but these are now plastered and painted over. Painted enrichment is present throughout, the work of A Roos and T Willerneuh. Stained glass throughout, a series of Saints dated 1840, was created by Franz Eggert of the Royal Works at Munich. The font features a buttressed shaft and pyramidal cap, and above it is a carved panel depicting St George and the Dragon, seemingly of 16th-century German origin, though now considered a 19th-century copy. Intarsia panels, designed by Clement Heaton in 1874-75 and depicting eight saints, Ecclesia, and Synagoga, screen off the rear of the nave. The woods originated from the Bedgebury Estate, and the panels were traditionally crafted locally and originally made for Trinity College Cambridge, before being relocated to Christ Church in 1974.