Church of St Christopher

Church of St Christopher

This Church of St Christopher was built between 1902 and 1904 on St Christopher's Green in Haslemere. A north chapel was added in 1935. The church was designed by Charles Sidney Spooner (1862–1938), an Arts and Crafts architect who had trained with Sir Arthur Blomfield from 1881 and became a fellow of the RIBA in 1907. The church was commissioned by the rector, George Aitken, to serve the expanding population of Haslemere following the arrival of the railway, particularly residents on the western side of the town. It was built at a cost of £4,200 by Haslemere Builders, a building cooperative run on profit-share principles by Hutchison, a Quaker. Unusually for an Anglican church, it was built on co-operative principles. The style is Free Late Gothic.

The church is constructed of coursed Bargate stone rubble with ironstone galleting, freestone dressings and chequerboard decoration to the west gable end and tower parapet. There is a band of zigzag tile on edge decoration, and the under-floor stone ventilation grilles are designed to resemble miniature traceried windows. The roofs are tiled and pitched.

The plan comprises a three-and-a-half-bay nave and three-bay chancel in one, with north and south transepts. The south transept contains the organ and an attached two-stage south-east tower. The north transept, originally a choir vestry, is now a Lady chapel. In the north-east corner are a ground-floor vestry and WC with a parish room above.

The west end of the nave features a chequerwork gable and a large arched window with intersecting tracery, above a double door set back in a cambered architrave. To the left of the door is a niche containing a bronze copy of Spooner's statue of St Christopher; to the right is a copy of the original hexagonal stone lantern on a wall bracket. Both items are replacements after theft. The north and south walls of the nave have projecting stone corbels to the overhanging eaves and triple arched windows with trefoil heads and dripmoulds, separated by gabled buttresses. The south-eastern side has a two-stage tower with chequerwork parapet, paired lancets to the bell stage with wooden louvres and diagonal buttresses; the lower stage has a double trefoil window on the south side. The eastern side of the north side of the nave features a gabled projection containing a chapel and vestry to the ground floor and a small hall above.

The interior features single barrel-vaulted roofs to both nave and chancel, with white painted roof and walls. The roof trusses are supported on stone corbels, and the nave windows are recessed behind cambered stone arches. Many windows retain hand-blown glass in metal panes. The south side of the nave has a 1934 stained glass window depicting St Christopher. The easternmost window to the north aisle contains a stained glass Nativity scene dated 1910. The metal pendant lighting is original. Spooner designed the cast iron lectern in 1904 and an oak pulpit with stylised foliage carving. The chancel is approached by a step, and its roof bears stencil decorations designed by Spooner in 1928. Carved altar rails were reordered in 1972 when an altar was placed opposite the transepts and the choir stalls, originally facing inwards, were rearranged to face west.

A hanging painted icon of the Crucifixion, designed by Martin Travers as a memorial to the curate Christopher Tanner who rescued eighty men during the Battle for Crete in May 1941, hangs between the nave and chancel. The east window consists of jewel-bright geometric patterns by Christopher Whall, dated 1928. The original design was more elaborate but was modified so as not to conflict with the painted reredos. The reredos is an egg tempera triptych titled The Company of Saints, which was displayed at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of 1912. Eight painted panels of saints, designed by Louis Davis, are attached below the triptych.

In the north-east corner, the vestry has a ceiling with exposed floor joists. A narrow stone spiral stair leads to the parish room, which retains the original built-in bookcase and storage cupboards, stone fireplace and oak doors.

Charles Spooner was personally influenced by William Morris and joined the Art Workers Guild in 1887, becoming an early member of SPAB. He married Minnie Dibden Davison, a miniature painter, with whom he collaborated on the design of the reredos and stained glass. He taught furniture design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under W. R. Lethaby and, with A. J. Penty and Fred Rowntree, established a furniture workshop called Elmdon and Co. At St Christopher's Church, Spooner personally superintended the designing of furniture and fittings. Spooner built five other churches, all listed grade II.