Christ Church, Welshpool was commissioned by the

Earl of Powis Earl of Powis (Powys) is a title that has been created three times. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1674 in favour of William Herbert, 3rd Baron Powis, a descendant of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (c. 1501–15 ...

to commemorate his son, Edward James, the Viscount Clive, having come of age. It was designed by

Thomas Penson Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...

and completed 1839–44. The church is characterised by its impressive

Romanesque Revival architecture Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

in volcanic

Trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava enriched with silica and al ...

from the Earl of Powis' Standard quarry in

Welshpool Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...

. The church consists of a 7-bay nave with offset west tower, aisles, apse and south porch. The west gable of the nave has a wide doorway with triple arches with chevron moulding, while the tower is supported by massive pilaster buttresses. Christ Church was most noted for its interior decoration, and in particular its early use of terracotta. The church was a

Chapel of Ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

of Welshpool's St Mary's Church and had a separate endowment. It cost £6000 to build and this was raised by public subscription as well as being supported by the Earl. The congregation of Christ Church dropped dramatically during the twentieth century and in 1998 it was closed and sold in 2002 to Karl Meredith and Natalie Bass who are in the process of restoring the church, partly as a house and partly for community use.

Architecture

A large Anglo-Norman church by

, 1839–44, and just earlier than his St Agatha,

Llanymynech Llanymynech is a village straddling the border between Montgomeryshire/Powys, Wales, and Shropshire, England, about 9 miles (14 km) north of the Welsh town of Welshpool. The name is Welsh for "Church of the Monks". The village is on the ba ...

in Shropshire. Nave, N and s aisles, apse, s porch, NW tower. Exterior very roughly detailed, with huge conical turrets and massive buttressing. Interior of a grand Romanesque kind, with columns with scalloped capitals, a clerestory, si and a flat ceiling.

Terracotta Work

In this church moulded yellow bricks and

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

were used for the Romanesque arches of the nave and for the apsidal vaulting of the ceiling. It is likely that Penson, whose offices were at

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

was using the experimental terracotta that was being produced at the brickyards connected with the Oswestry Coalfield between

Trefonen Trefonen is a small village located approximately south-west of Oswestry, and three miles east of the England-Wales border, in Shropshire, England. The name translates into "village of the ash trees" in English. In 2001, the total population ...

and

Morda Morda is a village on the outskirts of the town of Oswestry, Shropshire, England, located near the border of England and Wales. The village is named after the River Morda, a tributary of the River Vyrnwy. History The Morda Valley Prior to 1 ...

. Penson also used terracotta for

church, St David's Church Newtown and the porch at

Llangedwyn Llangedwyn is a village in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales. The population of the community at the 2011 census was 402. The community includes the hamlet of Pen-y-bont Llanerch Emrys. It lies in the Tanat Valley near to the Wales/England border. ...

Church Furnishings

Font

The font is very finely cast in terracotta and is reminiscent of Coade stone. A similar, but later cast stone font is at Leighton Church, near Welshpool.

Woodwork

The carved woodwork of the pews is impressive and particularly the

armorial A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms. The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...

finials of the Earl of Powis’ family pews. These are finer than the similar pew ends in Leighton church.

Organ

The church has an important organ by Gray of 1817.

Encaustic Tiles

The church has some fine decorative encaustic floor tiles. Some of these were manufactured by Minton, but the source of armorial tiles with the Royal Coats of Arms, the Earls of Powis and the Bishops of St Asaph have not been identified.

Stained Glass

Three apse windows probably by David Evans of 1844, Three windows by A O Hemming of 1892

Churchyard

Those buried here include judge

William Henry Watson Sir William Henry Watson QC (1 July 1796 – 13 March 1860), was a British politician and judge. Life Early life Watson was born at Nottingham, the son of John Watson, captain in the 76th Foot, by Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Grey of Bamburgh ...

, and members of the family of the Earls of Powis. The

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

register and maintain the graves of 12 British service personnel, comprising one officer and six soldiers of the army and one

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

airman of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and three army soldiers and one officer and one airman of the Royal Air Force of

, including two brothers, Viscounts Clive, who were sons of the 4th Earl of Powis.http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/75073/WELSHPOOL%20(%20CHRIST%20CHURCH)%20CHURCHYARD CWGC Cemetery report, breakdown obtained from casualty record.

Literature

*Thomas D R ''The History of the Diocese of St Asaph'', Caxton Press, Oswestry 1908 (2nd ed.), Vol 3, 181–3 *R Scourfield and R Haslam ''The Buildings of Wales: Powys; Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire'' Yale University Press 2013. *Stratton, M. (1993) ''The Terracotta Revival : Building Innovation and the Image of the Industrial City in Britain and North America''. London : Gollancz.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments: Coflei

*Karl Meredith and Natalie Bass: Christ Church, Welshpool Blogspo

*Photos on Flick
Artwork at Christ Church, Welshpool
Church in Wales church buildings, Welshpool, Christ Church Churches in Powys

Romanesque Revival church buildings in the United Kingdom Thomas Penson buildings and structures