Parish Church of Christ Church

Details

PAIGNTON

SX8861 TORQUAY ROAD 1947-1/4/112 (East side) Parish Church of Christ Church

GV II

Parish church. 1887-1888. Built to the designs of WG Couldrey of Paignton, contractor Messrs Drewe of Paignton. Early English style. MATERIALS: Local red snecked breccia on a rusticated breccia plinth; Bathstone and local grey limestone dressings; slate roof with pierced ridge tiles; cast-iron rainwater goods. PLAN: Chancel with semi-circular east end; nave with clerestory; N and S transepts; Narrow 4-bay N and S aisles; NE organ chamber; SE vestry; W end narthex. A planned SW tower was never built. EXTERIOR: Grey limestone band above plinth and voussoirs over all but aisle windows. Chancel has 5 high-set traceried Decorated 3-light windows with a moulded string rising to form the hoodmould. Lean-to organ chamber has angle buttresses, a coped half-gable and a rose window in the east wall. Vestry on S side has a parapet and square-headed windows; moulded arched doorway on S side. Transepts with buttresses with set-offs; moulded string rises to form hoodmould of 3-light N and S transept windows. Four 3-light traceried windows to clerestory. Buttressed aisles with lean-to roofs and lancet windows arranged in pairs with continuous hoodmould. Blind gable rising from aisle on S side, presumably part of the projected tower. Tall triple lancet at W end with shared hoodmould, each lancet with shafts with capitals and moulded arches. W end narthex with lean-to roof and buttresses crowned with conical pinnacles to left and right of nave. Pair of lancet windows in the centre, flanked by richly moulded doorways with replaced C20 doors. To left and right of the buttresses the outer bays of the narthex each have one lancet window. The right-hand bay is crowned with a small, low, open timber bellcote, gabled on all 4 sides. Original rainwater goods have fleur-de-lis brackets and decorated rainwater heads. INTERIOR: Remarkably tall nave. Unplastered walls. Tall, moulded chancel arch on half columns with moulded capitals; similar design to transeptal arches. 4-bay nave arcades with varied design to columns, paired across the nave, and moulded capitals. Keeled boarded wagon roof with simple decoration of pierced trefoils, timber braces to wagon ribs carried on stone shafts rising from the arcade capitals. Iron roof ties appear to be part of the original design. Similar roof to chancel. Chancel has moulded doorway to the vestry with a hoodmould and detached shafts. Moulded arches into organ chamber on N side of chancel and E side of N transept. 1927 timber reredos, following the curve of the east wall with 4 crocketed gables above trefoil-headed niches carved in relief with scenes from the Life of Christ. Chancel floor of small red tiles; nave floor woodblock. S transept partly screened off with half-glazed screen. Narthex with 2-leaf half-glazed door to nave and chamfered arches into N and S bays. FITTINGS include late C19 font, the curved bowl decorated with toothed moulding, text and roundels with marble inlay, supported on a stout cylindrical stem with engaged marble shafts. Late C19 pulpit on a chamfered stone base with a cylindrical local marble stem. The pulpit consists of an open arcade of polished marble columns with bell capitals and a stiff-leaf frieze below the cornice. Simple late C19 nave benches with Y ends, each decorated with a pierced trefoil. Unusual late C19 lectern, a conventional brass eagle but placed on a stem of rough-hewn granite with a dressed granite base. Early C20 choirstalls. Small number of stained glass windows, mostly early C20. The original glazing of Cathedral glass in pastel colours survives in most of the windows. HISTORY: The church was founded to accommodate the increasing population of late C19 Paignton and to provide services of a more evangelical character than those in the medieval parish church of St.John (qv). The total cost of erecting the church was estimated at »7,500 in 1886. Couldrey, whose design won the competition for the church, was responsible, along with GS Bridgman, for much of the architecture of late C19 Paignton, including Palace Avenue. (Thirsk D & J: The Church by the Marsh: Paignton: 1988-; Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989: 836).

Listing NGR: SX8883861228

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

383879

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Thirsk, D, Thirsk, J, The Church by the Marsh Paignton, (1988)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 836

End of official list entry

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