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

• Historic England Listing
• 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

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)