- Christ Church, Walmsley
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Christ Church, Walmsley 
Christ Church, Walmsley, from the northwestCoordinates: 53°37′25″N 2°26′20″W / 53.6236°N 2.4389°W OS grid reference SD 711 142 Location Blackburn Road, Walmsley, Egerton, Greater Manchester Country England Denomination Church of England Website Christ Church, Walmsley History Consecrated 3 October 1839 Architecture Status Parish church Functional status Active Heritage designation Grade II Designated 19 August 1986 Architect(s) Edmund Sharpe Architectural type Church Style Gothic Revival Groundbreaking 1839 Completed 1867 Administration Parish Walmsley Deanery Walmsley Archdeaconry Bolton Diocese Manchester Province York Clergy Vicar(s) Revd K Thomas Christ Church, Walmsley is situated on Blackburn Road, Walmsley, Egerton, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Church of England parish church in the deanery of Walmsley, the archdeaconry of Bolton, and the diocese of Manchester.[1] The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[2]
Contents
History
Walmsley was the old name for the present village of Egerton. The first known building there was originally a chapel of ease in the ancient parish of Bolton le Moors. It is not known the date that Walmsley Chapel was built, but the Diocesan Church Calendar stated that it existed in the year 1500 and the first documentary evidence appears to be in the "Inventories of Church Goods 1552". The chapel was rebuilt in 1771, but was demolished in 1839. The present church was built in 1839–40 and designed by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe.[3] The church cost £3,557 (£250,000 as of 2011),[4] and was consecrated on 3 October 1839 by Rt Rev John Bird Sumner, then the bishop of Chester.[5] Transepts were added in 1867.[3][6]
Architecture
Exterior
Christ Church is constructed in stone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. Its plan consists of a sixbay nave, with a clerestory, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, and a chancel with an organ loft to the south and a lean-to vestry to the north. The tower is at the west end; it is in three stages, separated by string courses. There are twin lancet windows in the lower stage, single lancets in the middle stage and stepped lancets in the top stage containing louvred bell openings. The plain parapet is corbelled, and corner buttresses rise to a pinnacle at each corner.[2]
Interior
Inside the church, the arcades are carried on monolithic piers (made from single pieces of stone). They are 16 feet (4.9 m) high and carved into four shafts.[5][6] The west gallery is supported on two cast iron columns.[2] The panelled reredos dates from 1872 and side panels were added in 1908; all the panels depict scenes in mosaic. The chapel in the south transept contains an altar with a canopy and another reredos. These were added to the church in 1952 to accommodate a 15th-century painted predella. This is divided into three sections containing depictions of Christ before Pilate, Man of Sorrows, and the Lamentation; the sections are separated by gilded tracery. The war memorial, dating from about 1920, is in alabaster, and depicts an angel an a wreath. The stained glass in the east window dates from 1872 is by William Wailes, and that in the south transept, dating from 1896 is by Ballantyne and Gardiner. In the nave, in windows facing each other, is glass designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Co. in 1889.[6] The font, which carries a dedication dated 1845, was moved here from Bolton Parish Church in 1952.[2] The three-manual organ dates from 1884.[7]
See also
- List of architectural works by Edmund Sharpe
References
- ^ Walmsley, Christ Church, Church of England, http://www.achurchnearyou.com/walmsley-christ-church/, retrieved 2 April 2010
- ^ a b c d "Christ Church, Bolton", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1309572, retrieved 25 July 2011
- ^ a b Billington, W.D. (1982). From Affetside to Yarrow : Bolton place names and their history, Ross Anderson Publications (ISBN 0-86360-003-4).
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ a b Hughes, John M. (2010), Edmund Sharpe: Man of Lancaster, John M. Hughes, p. 144
- ^ a b c Hartwell, Clare; Matthew Hyde, Nikolaus Pevsner (2004). The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 213–214. ISBN 0 300 10583 5.
- ^ Lancashire (Manchester, Greater), Bolton - Christ Church, Walmsley, British Institute of Organ Studies, http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=G00409, retrieved 2 April 2010
External links
- The Parish of Christ Church, Walmsley (Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project)
- Christ Church, Walmsley (GENUKI)
Categories:- Church of England churches in Greater Manchester
- Grade II listed churches
- Grade II listed buildings in Greater Manchester
- Gothic Revival architecture in England
- Religious buildings completed in 1840
- 19th-century Church of England church buildings
- 1867 architecture
- Anglican Diocese of Manchester
- Edmund Sharpe buildings
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