Diameter: 25.25" Bell 1 of 1
Founded by John Warner & Sons 1868
Dove Bell ID: 61226 Tower ID: 24181 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Ellacombe: Christ Church
Overview
Grid reference: SX 919 646
1844-1868 to the designs of Habershon, Brock and Webb. S aisle 1889 by Richards and Harrison. Chancel and south-east chapel 1907, by Tait and Harvey.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Nave, four-bay S aisle, SW tower incorporating porch, SE chapel, chancel, NE vestry.
Footprint of Church buildings: 678 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The Archaeology Data Service does not record any significant finds in the vicinity of Christ Church. The area was farmland until the late nineteenth-century. No burials on site. The archaeological potential of the site is likely to be low.
Built in 1868 to serve the rapidly expanding suburbs of Torquay, contemporary with Babbacombe All Saints, Torquay St John and Torquay St Luke (see ‘Other churches nearby’, below). The Ellacombe Book: A Portrait of a Torquay Parish, by Sidney R. Langmead (see references) contains a detailed history of the church.
Trees include holly, mountain ash, evergreen oak, ash, laurel. No known TPOs.
Exterior Description
The S side of the building, the most prominent, consists of the south aisle with a lean-to roof and two-light Geometric Decorated-style traceried windows with weathered buttresses between. To the SW, a three-stage tower, square on plan to the bottom stage with a south-east stair turret with lancet windows and weathered buttresses. The moulded SW doorway has stiff-leaf capitals to the responds, a gabled hoodmould topped with a cross finial, and a two-light boarded door with good ironwork. Above, three lancet windows. The belfry stage has canted corners, with louvred lancet windows, and a corbelled stone batter decorated with gablets, below tall lucarnes on all eight sides. Above, a stone spire with decorated bands, topped with a weathervane.
The W façade contains a five-light Geometric decorated W window: above the five lancets, roundels arranged in cinquefoil and octofoil patterns each contain a trefoil. The W window is framed by a decorated band with dentil decoration and a hoodmould with foliate stops. Above, another decorated band and a single lanced in the apex of the gable. Below the W window, a string course, and a central weathered buttress containing a date stone (August 9, 1867) inscribed “All things come of thee, & of thine own have we given thee. 1st Chron. 29.14.”
There is an angle buttress at the NW corner. The NW door has a pointed hoodmould with a triangular tympanum above with a further hoodmould topped with a fleur-de-lis. The N side of the church has two-light Geometric Decorated-style traceried windows with weathered buttresses between. To the NE, there are steps down to a boiler house, surrounded by low, coped stone walls; then a porch with a cusped lancet window to W, a three-centred stone doorway to N with two steps up, and a stone parapet. The vestry projects to the E, containing a two-light Geometrical window with hood mould to N. The vestry extension then steps back, containing another three-centred doorway with hoodmould to the NE.
The chancel, in snecked ashlar, has moulded string courses, angle buttresses and a central buttress in the east wall, and a five-light Geometric Decorated traceried east window, less complex than the W. The chancel roof is lower than that of the nave; in the apex of E wall of nave are two lancets. The south-east chapel, also in snecked ashlar, has diagonal buttresses, a parapet, hipped roof and trefoil-headed one-light windows, one to the S and two to the E.
Building Fabric and Features
Nave
19th century
Chancel
20th century
Chapel (component)
20th century
Aisle
19th century south, 4-bay
Tower (component)
19th century
Vestry
19th century
Building Materials
Limestone
19th century Walls in snecked Berry Head limestone
Bath Stone
19th century window, door, and other dressings
Welsh Slate
19th century roofs
Timber
19th century roof structure
Interior
Interior Description
The nave has a remarkably fine exposed roof construction. The main trusses are arch-braced with queen posts above the tie supporting a scissor-braced apex with braces from the queen posts both to the purlins and principal rafters. Intermediate trusses are also arch-braced with king posts. All trusses spring from stone corbels.
Much of the nave is filled with pews fixed to suspended wooden floors to pew areas. There is herringbone woodblock flooring to the aisles. Unusual slender cast-iron columns divide the nave from the S aisle, of quatrefoil section with wrought-iron capitals below an iron plate that supports the thick chamfered arches. The S aisle roof is open with aisle half trusses and exposed rafters, with plaster infills between rafters. The columns and capitals, together with other details such as hood moulds and corbels, are coloured blue and gold.
The moulded chancel arch features text in Lombardic script reading “God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Around it, a hood mould with foliate stops. The chancel arch is flanked by lower arches, one N and two S. The chancel is divided from the nave by low stone walls, with which the pulpit is integral. There is a step up to the chancel, which is floored with basket-pattern wood-block. The chancel ceiling is oak-boarded with decorated ribs and bosses. There are three marble steps from the chancel to the high alar, and a mosaic floor to the sanctuary, grey with patterned borders; the sanctuary also has marble skirting. On the S side of the sanctuary, are sedilia and a piscine, arched with cusped tracery and pendants. On the N side, a pointed doorway leads to the vestry. Beneath the E window is a string course, continued at a lower level on the N and S sides of the sanctuary.
The chancel has 2-bay arcades into the side chapels with cylindrical columns and moulded arches. On the S side, a former organ chamber, converted in the 1960s to become the chapel of Christ the Healer – now a storage space. On the N side, there is a storage space, with a doorway leading to the vestry.
At the W end is a gallery, with an elaborate Gothic front incorporating a clock, now occupied by the organ. It is subdivided beneath by a glazed partition, housing (N to S) a choir vestry with kitchen, a community room, and S (tower) porch. From the porch, a pointed doorway opens on to a stone stairwell leading up to the gallery and ringing-chamber.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
19th century High altar in mixed hardwoods with gilded decoration to central panel. Shares trefoil motif with pulpit. Nave altar in sapele wood.
Pulpit
19th century Polyphant stone, octagonal with pierced roundel, integral with low chancel walls. Shares trefoil motif with altar.
Screen
19th century Low stone walls to chancel, integral with pulpit.
Lectern
19th century Eagle lectern, oak and ebony.
Font (component)
19th century Painted stone inscribed ‘Suffer little children to come unto me’, on marble stem and base, with gilded wooden cover.
Reredos
19th century Oak with blind tracery.
Pew (component)
19th century Pine pews with cross-headed ends with brass umbrella holders; arm-rests also pierced with a cross motif.
Stall
19th century Choir stalls and readers’ desks, oak with traceried frontals.
Rail
19th century Oak, with supports with gilded tracery.
Organ (component)
19th century Hele & Co, date unknown, Victorian.
Stained Glass (window)
20th century E window. Five-light. Some damage. WW1 memorial: “To the Glory of God and in affectionate memory of [Robert] Muir Mackenzie Bart. M.C. Durham Light Infantry Killed in Actio[n a]t Benvilier-sur-Bois 12th of April 1918 Aged 26”. St Michael the Archangel in the central light, with patterns and regimental symbols in other lights. Listing description suggests it may be by Hugh Easton, but this is disputed by Dr Neil Moat, who suggests it is by a pupil of Christopher Whall – the decorative grisaille being a classical Whall school pattern. Dedicated 27 Sept 1922. SE chapel, E: two lancets depicting healing miracles, no doubt installed when the former organ chamber was repurposed as the chapel of Christ the Healer in 1961 and of that date. SE chapel, S: single lancet depicting St Alban the Martyr, date unknown.
Bells
Portable Furnishings and Artworks
WW1/WW2: Flag from the Cenotaph, London. A metal plaque beneath records that it was presented to the Torbay branch of the Old Contemptibles Association and deposited in the church “for hallowed keeping”, 15th October 1950.
Churchyard
Grid reference: SX 919 646
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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