CHRIST CHURCH

CHRIST CHURCH, KEIGHLEY ROAD

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Overview

Parish church of 1837-39 by R.D. Chantrell, with parish rooms added c1982. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1131846
Date first listed:: 02-Mar-1978
List Entry Name:: CHRIST CHURCH
Statutory Address:: CHRIST CHURCH, KEIGHLEY ROAD

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Date:: 2004-06-21
Reference:: IOE01/12442/16
Rights:: © Ms Maire O'Donnell. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1131846
Date first listed:: 02-Mar-1978
List Entry Name:: CHRIST CHURCH
Statutory Address 1:: CHRIST CHURCH, KEIGHLEY ROAD

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: CHRIST CHURCH, KEIGHLEY ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: North Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Skipton
National Grid Reference:: SD 98824 51338

Details

SKIPTON

916/1/98 KEIGHLEY ROAD 02-MAR-78 CHRIST CHURCH

II* Parish church of 1837-39 by R.D. Chantrell, with parish rooms added c1982.

MATERIALS: Coursed sandstone with freestone dressings, slate roof.

PLAN: Aisled nave with west tower, lower aisled chancel over a crypt.

EXTERIOR: An ambitious church in simple Geometrical style. The 2-stage tower has diagonal buttresses rising to large corner pinnacles, and open arcaded parapet. Its west doorway has a single order of shafts, below a tall 3-light window and 2-light belfry openings with louvres. Nave, chancel and aisles have coped gables and are buttressed, including diagonal buttresses, and the chancel has arcaded eaves. The 6-bay nave has 2-light windows with Y-tracery, and the aisles taller 2-light windows with geometrical tracery. The 3-bay chancel also has a 2-light clerestorey windows and 4-light east window. Chancel aisles have Y-tracery north and south windows and, on the south side, a link to late C20 parish rooms. The entrance to the crypt is beneath the east window. It has a doorway with continuous moulding, flanked by lancet windows.

INTERIOR: The interior is especially impressive for its completeness. Nave arcades have octagonal piers and finely moulded arches, and the chancel arch is finely moulded on polygonal responds. There are plaster rib vaults in nave and aisles, springing from corbelled wall shafts in the arcade spandrels, and with foliage bosses. The chancel has a similar vault but richly painted with gilded bosses and stencilled decoration. The south chapel, created in the 1920s, has painted decoration by Sir Charles Nicholson, who might have been responsible for painting the chancel vault, since the church possesses a drawing, signed by him, showing the chancel-vault decoration. Walls are plastered and painted. The floor is stone-paved, except for raised floorboards below pews and black and white marble floor in the chancel. In the crypt, the western portion is aisled with 3-bay arcades on octagonal piers, under rib vaults, and the eastern section is divided into plainer cells off a central passageway.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The font has a round bowl with arcaded stem, in C13 style. Benches have plain square ends with arcaded frontal. Most of the chancel furnishings date from refurbishment in 1905. This includes Arts-and-Crafts panelling in the north and south walls, incorporating a vine-trail frieze, and communion rail with intricate tracery panels. Choir stalls have ends with ball finials, arms rests and blind-tracery panels. The communion rails have intricate openwork tracery panels. The Gothic-panelled reredos is dated 1953, by Thompson of Kilburn. In the north aisle is a polished stone 1914-18 war memorial, with a central sculpture of Christ flanked by an engraved roll call. A pretty Arts-and-Crafts tile wall plaque is to Elizabeth Onions (d 1895). Stained glass windows are mostly of the late C19 and early C20, including a south aisle window by Burlison & Grylls. The east window is of 1945.

HISTORY: Parish church of 1837-39 by Robert Chantrell (1793-1872), architect of Leeds. Chantrell was a pupil of Sir John Soane and set up practice in Leeds in 1819. He built secular buildings in the Greek-Revival style and built several churches that received grants from the Church Commissioners. Parish rooms were added on the south side of the church c1982.

SOURCES: Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, West Riding (1967), 486. Lambeth Palace Library, Incorporated Church Building Society Archives.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Christ Church, Skipton, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * The church is a well-preserved and ambitious design of the 1830s that attempts a more archaeological approach to Gothic architecture than had hitherto been fashionable. It has an especially impressive vaulted interior and a vaulted crypt, an unusual feature for this period. * The chancel is of special interest for its range of early-C20 fixtures, including panelling, choir stalls and communion rails, which are of a consistent quality; the painted decoration too is of note.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 26 October 2017.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 323479
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 26 October 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/218720
War Memorials Register, accessed 26 October 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/47357

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.