Nominal: 1415 Hz Diameter: 26.88" Bell 1 of 1
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1843
Dove Bell ID: 62721 Tower ID: 25016 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Worthing: Christ Church
Diocese of Chichester
Church, 610143
http://www.christchurchworthing.org.uk/Overview
Grid reference: TQ 146 27
The church was built in 1840-43 to the designs of John Elliott of Chichester. It cost about £4,500, the original design was amended following criticism from the Camden Society. This is a large Commissioners’ church, typical features being its relative simplicity with lancets and also its slim west tower, which gives it some vertical emphasis and townscape impact. It is designed in the lancet style with Decorated tracery, typical of a Commissioners’ church but with attention to detail. The equally typical slender 4-stage west tower has a freestone parapet above a corbelled cornice and angle buttresses which become diagonal on the upper two stages.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
West tower, aisled nave with transepts; chancel with north organ chamber, now cleared, and south vestries.
Dimensions:
Nave estimated to be c 26m (85ft) x 7m (22ft), chancel 9m long (30 ft).
Footprint of Church buildings: 806 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was built in 1840-43 to the designs of John Elliott of Chichester. It cost about £4,500, the original design was amended following criticism from the Camden Society. Although it was sited in what was a fashionable part of Worthing, this church was erected specifically for the accommodation of the poorer classes and within an evangelical tradition, by contrast to nearby St Paul’s which was more fashionable and patronised by Princess Alexandra. It is the first Gothic Revival church built in the town. After the typical expansion as a seaside resort, Worthing is now residential in nature, with a considerable population of pensioners.
Galleries were added to the transepts in 1865. The church was redecorated in the late 1870s under the direction of Charles Hide, with some new stained glass windows. The west gallery was removed and the chancel remodelled and refurbished in 1894, when vestries and organ chamber were added. The tower was underpinned in 1907-8 under the supervision of Mr R Singer Hyde. The organ was relocated into the north gallery (previously known as the Fisherman’s gallery) in 1971, and the church whitewashed, covering the Victorian decorative scheme. The church now has several useful rooms at the east end, as well as apparently a small crypt.
Exterior Description
The church is designed in the lancet style with Decorated tracery, typical of a Commissioners’ church but with attention to detail. The equally typical slender 4-stage west tower has a freestone parapet above a corbelled cornice and angle buttresses which become diagonal on the upper two stages. Lancet windows except for a Decorated style traceried west window. Steps up to the west doorway which has a double chamfered pointed arch.
The lean-to aisles are tall and narrow with angle buttresses and double chamfered lancet windows with hoodmoulds. Small paired lancet clerestory windows in square-headed frames. The transepts have large lancets in their west walls and stepped triple lancets in the north and south walls above pointed doorways.
The chancel has a 3-light Decorated style traceried east window. The 1894 vestries and organ chamber are built in a style to match the original but have yellow brick dressings to the openings. On the south side there is a polygonal vestry porch with a steep pyramidal roof, the earlier 19th-century vestry still exists behind these later additions.
Building Fabric and Features
Tower (component)
19th century west
Nave
19th century aisled with transepts
Chancel
19th century
Vestry
19th century south
Organ (component)
19th century chamber
Building Materials
Flint
19th century walls and flakes
Caen Stone
19th century dressings
Stone
19th century the quoins are experimental artificial stone
Brick
19th century later dressings
Slate
19th century roofing
Timber
19th century bracing to the tower
Interior
Interior Description
Entering thought the west doorway, there is a draught lobby with oak panelling introduced in 1929. Looking up and west, there is a 3-light internal west window with reticulated style tracery, inserted when the west gallery was removed. Looking east, the nave has unusually tall, slender, octagonal Caen stone arcade piers with vertical recessed roll mouldings at the corners of each octagon; moulded capitals and double chamfered arches. All is whitewashed, with patches flaking off here and there; the Victorian decorative scheme might survive underneath.
Pitch pine tie-beam, king-post and strut roof to the nave with arched braces carried on short posts on moulded corbels; cusped detail. The transept roofs are similar. The aisle roofs are essentially one half of the same design. Nairn reports Goodhart-Rendel’s withering comment “the roofs sadly by Bryant & May”, and the members are indeed rather spindly, but match the delicate arcades.
The nave and transepts have a full set of box pews with doors and poppyhead finials, a rare survival. The transepts have galleries, the north gallery with raked seats, the south gallery used as the organ chamber (the pipes, the console is on the north side of the chancel). The floors are of quarry tile.
The moulded pointed chancel arch rests on short shafts with moulded capitals. The chancel roof has hammerbeam trusses with cusped decoration. The chancel is painted cream with a polychromatic decorative scheme (a fraction of what was once there), and has a mosaic reredos with a frieze of mosaic foliage and texts and mosaic sanctuary floor; encaustic tiles to the chancel floor. Choir stalls with open traceried fronts, altogether a fine High Victorian scheme. The vestries have attractive oak panelling.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
19th century Oak table with open tracery front, a good quality piece.
Reredos
19th century Mosaic reredos with text “He was known of them in the breaking of bread” and IHS below. Extends across the whole of the east wall and returns to north and south as a dado.
Pulpit
19th century Polygonal stone pulpit by Jones & Willis of London. The pulpit is on a stone stem with carved stiff-leaf cornices, the sides decorated with blind tracery and marble shafts.
Lectern
19th century Brass reading desk, elaborate, with wooden stem and base with steps and brass rail.
Font (component)
19th century Stone font with a small octagonal bowl decorated with blind quatrefoils on a thick stem with trefoil-headed panels.
Stained Glass (window)
19th century Cathedral glass of 1894 in the aisles and west window. An interesting collection of 19th-century glass by various studios: East window, Christ in Majesty flanked by St John and St Peter given in memory of Cholmley family; by Joseph Bell of Bristol, 1850. South side lancets: • St John, in memory of Mary Daniell died 1859. By Cox & Sons. • Good Shepherd, in memory of Clifford Cruse died 1877. By Ward & Hughes, Frith St, Soho. • Nativity, angels above and below. In memory of Mary Hide died 1892. Perhaps by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. • Noli me tangere, women at the tomb, in memory of Clifford John Stapley & wife, after 1871. Perhaps by Clayton & Bell. • Acts 4.11. In memory of members of the Hide, Reid, Mitchell families, after 1878. Perhaps by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. North aisle, Child and guardian angel, in memory of Arthur Leslie Charrington, died 1889 aged 29. Perhaps by Heaton, Butler & Bayne.
Inscribed Object
19th / 20th century • Mottled marble tablet in memory of William Ferris, vicar, died 1931 • White marble tablet in shape of shield under a withered bough on a dark metal ground, in memory of Catherine Lockton, daughter of Rev John Lockton. Signed T H Hartley & Co of Westminster. • Similar but with star above in memory of Samuel Gifford, died 1876. • Plain veined tablet in memory of Sophia Hewlett, benefactor of the church, died 1868. • Brass tablet in memory of Col Richard Maxwell Commandant 2nd Punjabis, died in London 1909. • Shield tablet, plain but as above, in memory of Rev Charles Hole, died 1898, who was responsible for the 1894 works. • Marble arch-headed tablet on dark ground in memory of Pte Arthur Leslie Charrington HAC, died of his wounds in 1917.
Plaque (component)
20th century • Brass plaque underneath in memory of Mary wife of Sir Bickham Sweet-Escott, died 1935. • Brass plaque with Phoenix above inscription in memory of Pte George Churcher, Queen’s Own Hussars, died in action in South Africa in 1909. • Brass plaque in memory of Edward Godwin, died 1915 in hospital in Armentieres, France of heart failure and fever brought on by the trenches; an unusually detailed memorial.
Organ (component)
19th century Three manual pipe organ by J J Binns of Leeds of 1892, introduced in 1970 when it was rebuilt by Daniel of Clevedon, in good working order. Dedicated in memory of Maggie Chisholm, died 1952. 2 pianos, Bechstein, Minette.
Rail
19th century Brass, twisted standards tubular hand rail.
Bells
Portable Furnishings and Artworks
Registers date from 1842.
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 146 27
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Sources
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