Christ Church With St Ewen

Christ Church with St Ewen is a church built between 1786 and 1791 to designs by William Paty and constructed by Thomas Paty and Sons. The entrance and interior were refurbished by Henry Williams in 1883, and the building was restored in 1973.

The church is built in Bath stone ashlar in the Baroque style, with a western tower and nave. The east and north elevations are hidden from view. The south aisle features four 3-light round-arched windows with plain surrounds, installed in 1883.

The western tower comprises four stages. The first stage has a neo-Florentine portal with a round-headed doorway beneath an arch of oak leaf bundles set inside pilasters, with a moulded archivolt decorated with egg-and-dart moulding and rocaille work above. Flanking the doorway are reeded pilasters with Composite capitals, and clasping pilasters mark the corners. An entablature with dentil architrave, decorated fret frieze, and acanthus cornice sits below a segmental pediment containing the head of Christ. Beneath this is a first-stage balcony with a pair of Roman Quarter Jacks striking bells, a large clockface, a cornice and segmental pediment on scrolled acanthus brackets. Above this point the tower becomes free-standing with all four faces identical: a stepped plinth leads to the third stage, which has paired Ionic pilasters at the corners beneath a projecting pediment. A central recessed round-headed blind arch with rusticated blocks and an impost band occupies the stage. The belfry above features plinth and pairs of Corinthian pilasters supporting a modillion cornice, with a central louvred round arch. A blocking course with large urns at the corners caps this stage. The spire is three-stage and octagonal, set on a short plinth and divided by arcaded strips, each face displaying a course of oculi.

The interior has a four-bay nave with elliptical arches on slender Corinthian columns; the arches are decorated with guilloche soffits. Aisles of equal height have vaults carried on scrolled acanthus corbels, and the ceiling displays Adam-style decoration. The Classical triglyph reredos dates to 1882 and was designed by F Bell. The original reredos, an elliptical pediment on Corinthian pilasters with gilded plaster decoration, now serves as the rood screen with swan's-neck gates.

The pulpit is an octagonal timber structure restored in 1791, with painted plaster cherub heads, back and inlaid tester. The communion table and wrought-iron rail date to 1792. The original font now forms the lectern base. At the rear stands the 1708 organ loft by Renatus Harris, positioned above a balcony on two Corinthian columns with a frieze of cherubs and a carved panelled front surmounted by angels with instruments. In the northwest corner is a segmental arch leading to a bay containing a small octagonal font with dentils under the basin, and a large bound oak chest with three locks.

The church contains numerous memorials. These include wall plaques to Christopher Raymond (died 1754), a draped stele on slate background; Martha Leavis (died 1750), a sarcophagus panel beneath a sarcophagus; Thomas Holmes (died 1761), a sarcophagus below an obelisk with a seated figure holding an urn, signed by Thomas Paty; William Baylis (died 1788), an oval plaque on black marble backing with a draped urn above; Frances Ireland (died 1795), a black stele bearing an open marble book, signed by Wood; Hannah Hosier (died 1830), a stele with inverted fire brands either side and an urn above; and Robert Watson (died 1842), a rectangular plaque with an open quatrefoil above containing fleur-de-lys.

The design was based on the church at Badminton in Gloucestershire and more loosely on St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. The Quarter Jacks were salvaged from the earlier church of 1728 by James Paty, and many of the memorials came from the demolished St Ewen's.