Description

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE NEW ROAD
829-1/9/153 (East side)
14/03/74 Christ Church

GV II

Anglican church. Constructed 1858-59 to serve new parish east
of New Road. Architect Nehemiah Edward Stevens of Tunbridge
Wells, contractor Dove Bros., Islington. Kentish Ragstone
squared coursed rubble, with Bath stone dressings and windows,
Welsh slated roof.
PLAN: chancel, south chapel, nave, north and south aisles,
north porch under tower with spire, and projecting south
porch.
EXTERIOR: in Early English style, with walls divided into bays
by projecting buttresses with paired lancet windows between;
triple lancet east and west windows. 3 bay chancel, single
lancet windows in each bay. Nave and aisles separately roofed,
presenting triple gables to west elevation with central nave
projecting as a single shallow bay. North aisle flanked by
tower, with tall lancet arches on ground floor to give access
to north porch. Arches glazed in with screen early 1980s.
Angle buttresses with 4 stages of offsets. Single lancet to
tower room, with twin lancets to belfry above, with louvres.
Lombard frieze at eaves of tower, with broach spire
constructed of ashlar ragstone. Lucarnes with cusped heads on
each main face, with cusped openings in each diagonal face
above.
INTERIOR has Ware yellow stock brick walls. Chancel with
triple light east window, with glass by Martin Travers,
installed 1948 to replace glass destroyed by bombing in 1940:
circular sexfoiled window above contains 1883 glass which
survived. Grey and white marble floor. Oak communion table,
panels behind and reredos are a memorial to men of the parish
killed in World War I. On north wall is a memorial tablet to
Robert Hanbury (1796-1884) of Poles, north of Ware, who paid
for the construction of the church, schools, mission hall and
vicarage. Chancel arch rests on corbels with stiff leaf
ornament. Brick nave arcade 7 bays, with red arches, supported
on circular Bath stone columns with roll moulded capitals. At
east and west ends of nave, arcade supported on corbelled
responds with carved still leaf ornament. Nave lit by dormer
windows concealed in valley between nave and aisle roofs. Nave
and aisles have simplified hammerbeam roofs, carried on
moulded stone corbels, with plastered ceilings. Aisle windows
paired lancets, glazed with Hartleys quarries with coloured
borders, with long cusped heads in stone surrounds beneath
raised segmental brick arches. Polished limestone font, a
concave sided octagonal bowl on a pedestal, stands in east end
of north aisle.
Christ Church was consecrated by the Bishop of Rochester on
9th November, 1858, but the tower was not completed until the
following year. Although built to house a full peal, there is
a single 3cwt bell, founded in Whitechapel in 1859. East of
the church Christ Church School was founded in 1860, to its
left stands the Henry Page Memorial Hall, built 1895. Neither
of these are of special interest and are not included.
(Edwards E and Perman D: Ware's Past In Pictures: Ware: 1991-:
122; Heath C: The Book of Ware. A Portrait of the Town:
Chesham: 1977-: 77-8, 81, 88-9; Lavender S: Churches, Chapels
and Faiths of Ware: Ware: 1989-: 14; The Victoria History of
the County of Hertford: London: 1912-: 382, 394; Cussans JE:
History of Hertfordshire: London: 1870-1873: 155-6; Wang A:
Christ Church Ware. A History: Ware: 1985-; Wang A: A Short
History and Guide to Christ Church Ware: Ware: 1993-).

Listing NGR: TL3599514386

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Christ Church Ware at Wikipedia
• Christ Church Ware official website
• Wikidata Q5108831

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)