Old Christ Church is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church located in Waterloo Road,

Waterloo, Merseyside Waterloo is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in Merseyside, England. Along with Seaforth, Merseyside, Seaforth the two localities make up the Church (Sefton ward), Sefton Ward of Church. The area is bordered by Crosby, Merseyside, Cr ...

, England. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. It was declared redundant in 1982, and its functions have been replaced by a new Christ Church at the junction of Crosby Road South and Alexandra Road, Waterloo.

Early history

Christ Church was built between 1891 and 1899 to replace a former church built in 1840 whose structure had become unsound. The foundation stone was laid on 17 October 1891, the nave and baptistry were built between 1891 and 1893, and the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

was added the following year. In 1899 the tower was built. A competition was held to select the architect, but this failed to find an acceptable design, and the commission was given to the Lancaster firm of

Paley, Austin and Paley Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, England, Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, whi ...

. The contractors were George Woods and Sons of

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. Histo ...

, and the church cost £21,956 (). The church was dedicated in April 1893, and on 2 December 1899 it was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

by Bishop Royston, an

assistant bishop An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop. Church of England In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...

in the

Diocese of Liverpool The Diocese of Liverpool is a Church of England diocese based in Liverpool, covering Merseyside north of the River Mersey, part of West Lancashire, part of Wigan in Greater Manchester, Widnes and part of Warrington and in Cheshire (it was origi ...

. (this is taken from a document prepared for the Council for the Care of Churches on 12 August 1981)

Architecture

The architectural historians Pollard and

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, dan ...

in the ''

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

'' series express the opinion that this is one of the "very finest" churches designed by the firm of Paley, Austin and Paley. The church is constructed in

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

from Bootle quarry, and is roofed with green

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

s. Its plan consists of a five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

nave with north and south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s and a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

, a chancel with a south chapel and a north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

, and a northeast tower with

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially ...

to its east. At the west end is a polygonal

baptistry In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

, and porches have been incorporated into the west ends of the aisles. The nave measures by , the aisles are wide, the chancel is by , and the south chapel measures by . The architectural style is mainly

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

, and there are elements of Decorated style (in the

tracery Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...

of the west window), and

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

style (above doorways and in the aisle windows). The west front is symmetrical with angle

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es, and contains a tall six-light window. Above the window is a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

containing two

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinatio ...

-headed niches and a small

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

. The gable is decorated with chequerwork and on its apex is a stone cross. The baptistry protrudes outwards below the west window. It has two-light square-headed windows, angle buttresses and a moulded

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

. Flanking the baptistry are gabled porches over which are two-light windows at the ends of the aisles. Along the walls of the aisles are two two-light windows in each bay, except for the east bay on the south side which has one window and a small door leading into the chapel. The north transept has a transomed north window and a square-headed window on its west side. On the walls of the clerestory are three-light windows in each bay. The chancel roof is at a slightly lower level than that of the nave, and it has a cross on its gable apex. Between the chancel and the nave on the south side is a

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

containing the stairs leading to the walkways behind the parapets. The east window in the chancel is large, with seven lights, and the chapel has a five-light east window. The south wall of the chancel has two bays, each containing a pair of two-light square-headed windows. The tower is in three stages with

string courses A course is a layer of the same unit running horizontally in a wall. It can also be defined as a continuous row of any masonry unit such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, tiles, etc. Coursed masonry construction arranges ...

separating the stages. At its corners are angle buttresses. The middle stage is divided internally into two floors. At the northeast corner of the tower is an octagonal stair turret containing a

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

. The turret rises to a higher level than the tower, and is surmounted by a

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

ted stone spirelet. The bottom stage of the tower has a three-light window in the north wall. The middle stage contains an arched two-light window in the west wall and a similar window at a higher level in the north wall. Each wall of the top stage contains a three-light transomed square-headed bell opening. The parapet is double-stepped and is carved with the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

phrases '' Laus Deo'' (praise be to God) and ''

Laudate Dominum Psalm 117 is the 117th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people." In Latin, it is known as ''Laudate Dominum''. Consisting of only two verses, Psalm ...

'' (praise the Lord) in Gothic script. On top of the tower is a pyramidal roof. Internally, all the fittings were removed after the church became redundant. The striated stonework is exposed. The arcades between the nave and the aisles are carried on cylindrical pillars. In the south wall of the chancel are three

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...

and a credence shelf. Most of the church is floored with stone flags, but in the chancel are red, green, black and yellow decorated tiles. Some of the stained glass was moved into this church from the older church, but most of it is by

Shrigley and Hunt Shrigley and Hunt was an English firm which produced stained-glass windows and art tiles. History The business began in the 1750s when Shrigley's was a painting, carving and gilding firm in Lancaster, Lancashire. In 1868, control of Shrigley's ...

. The glass in the east window depicts the ''

Te Deum The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Chur ...

'' and the west window contains the

Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

External features

The sandstone boundary wall and the gates to the churchyard are listed at Grade II. They are contemporary with the church and were probably designed by the same architects. The gates are in

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

Recent history and present day

During the second half of the 20th century, the size of the congregation had fallen to a low level and in 1982 the church was declared redundant. The condition of its fabric deteriorated due to neglect and vandalism, and in 1993 it was planned to demolish it. However, following a public enquiry, it was decided that it should be conserved. In 1998 it was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in the Churches Conservation Trust. A group known as The Friends of Old Christ Church has been formed to raise money for the improvement of the facilities provided by the church building and to encourage its use by the community. It is possible to arrange visits to the church, and it is available for hiring. Events and activities are organised in the church.

References

External links

*{{official site, http://www.oldchristchurch.moonfruit.com
Old Christ Church
at the