Christ Church, Tunstall

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No 38 - Christ Church, Tunstall

Tunstall, Christ Church
Pen and ink drawing by T.P. Wood, 1838.

[Reproduced by permission of the
Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford]

"Christ Church. 1830-1. By F. Bedford, Another big Commissioners' church (cost £3,146) outside the town centre proper, w tower with pinnacles and spire; embraced.
Nave of three wide bays with pairs of lancet windows. The transepts and chancel are of 1885-6 by A. R. Wood."

Pevsner - The Buildings of England

Now a grade II listed building with the following description.....

Parish Church. A Commissioners Church of 1831-1832 by Francis Bedford, with extensions by A.R. Wood.

Faced with coursed and squared rubble, with Welsh slate roofs. West tower with flanking aisles to nave, aisle chapels and enlarged chancel of 1884. West tower of 3 stages, with west doorway in chamfered arch with simple hood mould. Lancet light and clock over, and paired bell chamber lights.

Angle buttresses form cusped finials to parapet. Blind west windows to aisles, which are divided into bays by thin pilaster buttresses with gablets, each bay containing paired lancet windows.

South door with moulded arch beneath angled hood mould suggesting vestigial gable. South aisle chapel, and chancel with 3-lights. Decorated east window with panelled frieze below and central buttress with gablet. North vestry. Inside, the chancel arch with marble shafts carried on corbels. Boarded ceilings in chancel, painted with quatrefoil frieze. stained glass and fittings (altar, reredos etc) are early 20th Century.

"Christ Church, Tunstall, is a handsome fabric, built in 1832, in the syle which prevailed in the reign of Elizabeth. The perpetual curacy is in the patronage of Ralph Sneyd, Esq, and incumbency of the Rev Samuel Newall, MA."

History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1851

"The need for a church in Tunstall goes back to the early 19th century when the population was rapidly increasing. In fact, the population in 1738 was only a mere 200, living in a handful of houses; in 1801, 800; by 1831, 3,673, and by 1838 the staggering figure of 6,608, living in about 1,400 houses. A church was not considered essential until this fantastic increase occurred. Those who desired to worship had no option but to travel in all weathers - on the atrocious roads - the two miles to either the Mother Church at Wolstanton or to Newchapel. And so, when the Act for the building of new churches in highly populated areas was passed, the inhabitants of Tunstall were very quick to file their application in 1829.

The building called Christ Church was erected in 1830-1 under the direction of the Commissioners on a site purchased from Ralph Sneyd at a cost of £400; this amount was then kindly donated towards the building of a parsonage. The church stands at the junction of the Turnpike to Bosley in Cheshire, built in 1770 and now called Furlong Road, the old main road to Liverpool, now High Street. It was designed by F. Bedford and constructed from stone quarried at nearby Chell. The cost was £3,146, of which £1,000 was contributed by the inhabitants and the rest by the Commissioners. It was designed to accommodate 1,000 worshippers in 25 pews, 639 were private and the rest free.

Originally, the west tower housed a solitary bell and was surmounted by a conical spire which projected to about 29ft., and the side buttresses were adorned with ornamental pinnacles, but unfortunately these have now disappeared. The transepts and chancel are a later addition, in 1885-6, by A. R. Wood."

Neville Malkin 22nd Jan 1975

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previous: Harecastle Tunnel
contents: index of buildings of Tunstall and surrounding area