Description

CHESTER CITY (EM)

SJ4066 SOMERSET STREET 1932-1/6/264 Christ Church

GV II

Anglican church. 1866 to 1900. By John Douglas. Orange Ruabon brick and sandstone; grey-green slate roofs. Largely free Early English with some Decorated and Perpendicular-style features. PLAN: aisled nave, chancel, baptistry, chapel and vestries; the intended south-west steeple was not built. EXTERIOR: nave of stone-dressed brick on high flush plinth of squared snecked rubble; flush quoins. Geometrical west window of paired lights flanking broader central light. South-west porch has rectangular west window; oak double doors with lancet above; south aisle has 3 bays with paired lancets and a stone bay with single lancet and porch for priest's door; rainwater pipe and head dated 1897; pinnacled buttresses; oak door, arched. The clerestory has a cantilevered timber-framed hip-roofed bellcote over main porch; 6 pairs of lancets and a single lancet. Apsidal chapel south of chancel has 2 small lancets in west gable; rainwater head dated 1897; two traceried 2-light rectangular windows south; east end with 3-light window in C15 manner. Chancel of stone has a lancet in corner, south; east window of 3 lancets in recessed arch; dripmould on corbel heads. Organ chamber and vestries adjoin north face of chancel; diminishing stone chimney with circular flue on chancel wall; timber-framed shingle dormer on north roof-pitch. North vestry has 2 lancets; north chimney. A further vestry, roof parallel with chancel roof; triple lancets, east; 3 north windows of paired shouldered lights; oak door and triple lancets in west gable-end. North aisle of nave has small door in east bay; 3 pairs of lancets; clerestory has 9 pairs of lancets. Baptistry off west bay has roof stepped down over north apse; a rectangular 3-light panel-tracery north window; a 1-light window in each oblique face; a pair of lancets and a single lancet in west face, adjoining west end of nave. All gables have stone copings with crosses as apex-finials. The nave roof has 5 lucarnes on each slope, now blocked. INTERIOR: the 5-bay nave has chamfered arcade with no capitals; corbelled shafts carry queen post trusses with cusped braces; wood-block floor; boarded ceiling; well-detailed aisle roofs. Apsidal baptistry with font directly opposite south porch. Chancel arch with shafts on

angel corbels; wagon roof to chancel, lower than nave; encaustic tile floor. Pedestal pulpit; rood-beam, rather lightweight, 1920 by Sir Charles Nicholson; reredos and chancel fittings c1900-1910, also by Nicholson; chapel reredos by Kempe 1897 and gates probably by Nicholson; organ and case with panels painted in Pre-Raphaelite manner. Chapel windows 1897, south aisle 1901 and west window 1902 are by Kempe; baptistry 1906 by AK Nicholson; west north aisle window 1906 by Bryams.



Listing NGR: SJ4074167019

External Links

• Christ Church, Chester at Wikipedia
• Christ Church, Chester official website
• Wikidata Q5108676

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

• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
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  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6