Description

PAIGNTON

SX8861 TORQUAY ROAD
1947-1/4/112 (East side)
Parish Church of Christ Church

GV II

Parish church. 1887-1888. Built to the designs of WG Couldrey
of Paignton, contractor Messrs Drewe of Paignton. Early
English style.
MATERIALS: Local red snecked breccia on a rusticated breccia
plinth; Bathstone and local grey limestone dressings; slate
roof with pierced ridge tiles; cast-iron rainwater goods.
PLAN: Chancel with semi-circular east end; nave with
clerestory; N and S transepts; Narrow 4-bay N and S aisles; NE
organ chamber; SE vestry; W end narthex. A planned SW tower
was never built.
EXTERIOR: Grey limestone band above plinth and voussoirs over
all but aisle windows. Chancel has 5 high-set traceried
Decorated 3-light windows with a moulded string rising to form
the hoodmould. Lean-to organ chamber has angle buttresses, a
coped half-gable and a rose window in the east wall. Vestry on
S side has a parapet and square-headed windows; moulded arched
doorway on S side.
Transepts with buttresses with set-offs; moulded string rises
to form hoodmould of 3-light N and S transept windows. Four
3-light traceried windows to clerestory. Buttressed aisles
with lean-to roofs and lancet windows arranged in pairs with
continuous hoodmould. Blind gable rising from aisle on S side,
presumably part of the projected tower. Tall triple lancet at
W end with shared hoodmould, each lancet with shafts with
capitals and moulded arches.
W end narthex with lean-to roof and buttresses crowned with
conical pinnacles to left and right of nave. Pair of lancet
windows in the centre, flanked by richly moulded doorways with
replaced C20 doors. To left and right of the buttresses the
outer bays of the narthex each have one lancet window.
The right-hand bay is crowned with a small, low, open timber
bellcote, gabled on all 4 sides. Original rainwater goods have
fleur-de-lis brackets and decorated rainwater heads.
INTERIOR: Remarkably tall nave. Unplastered walls. Tall,
moulded chancel arch on half columns with moulded capitals;
similar design to transeptal arches. 4-bay nave arcades with
varied design to columns, paired across the nave, and moulded
capitals.
Keeled boarded wagon roof with simple decoration of pierced
trefoils, timber braces to wagon ribs carried on stone shafts
rising from the arcade capitals. Iron roof ties appear to be
part of the original design. Similar roof to chancel.
Chancel has moulded doorway to the vestry with a hoodmould and
detached shafts. Moulded arches into organ chamber on N side
of chancel and E side of N transept. 1927 timber reredos,
following the curve of the east wall with 4 crocketed gables
above trefoil-headed niches carved in relief with scenes from
the Life of Christ. Chancel floor of small red tiles; nave
floor woodblock. S transept partly screened off with
half-glazed screen. Narthex with 2-leaf half-glazed door to
nave and chamfered arches into N and S bays.
FITTINGS include late C19 font, the curved bowl decorated with
toothed moulding, text and roundels with marble inlay,
supported on a stout cylindrical stem with engaged marble
shafts. Late C19 pulpit on a chamfered stone base with a
cylindrical local marble stem. The pulpit consists of an open
arcade of polished marble columns with bell capitals and a
stiff-leaf frieze below the cornice. Simple late C19 nave
benches with Y ends, each decorated with a pierced trefoil.
Unusual late C19 lectern, a conventional brass eagle but
placed on a stem of rough-hewn granite with a dressed granite
base. Early C20 choirstalls.
Small number of stained glass windows, mostly early C20. The
original glazing of Cathedral glass in pastel colours survives
in most of the windows.
HISTORY: The church was founded to accommodate the increasing
population of late C19 Paignton and to provide services of a
more evangelical character than those in the medieval parish
church of St.John (qv). The total cost of erecting the church
was estimated at »7,500 in 1886. Couldrey, whose design won
the competition for the church, was responsible, along with GS
Bridgman, for much of the architecture of late C19 Paignton,
including Palace Avenue.
(Thirsk D & J: The Church by the Marsh: Paignton: 1988-;
Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989:
836).

Listing NGR: SX8883861228

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Parish Church of Christ Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26489803

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)