Christ Church, Port Sunlight

Edit links
Coordinates: 53°21′13″N 2°59′43″W / 53.3535°N 2.9954°W / 53.3535; -2.9954
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Christ Church, Port Sunlight
Style
Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking1902
Completed1904 (1904)
Specifications
MaterialsSandstone, stone-slate roof
Clergy
Minister(s)Revd Ian Smith

Christ Church is in Church Drive, Port Sunlight, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is an active United Reformed Church,[1] and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.[2]

History

Port Sunlight is a

Congregational church (William Lever himself was a Congregationalist.) it is now part of the United Reformed Church.[1] In 1914 the Lever family vault was added as a memorial to the memory of Lady Lever.[2] As a Millennium project in 2000, two new rooms were built into the aisles for the use of children and the youth of the church.[1]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in red

embattled parapet. The Lady Lever Memorial is in the form of a loggia at the west end of the church. It is in three bays, and is richly decorated, with buttresses, pinnacles, niches, and an embattled parapet.[2]

Interior

The church can seat 800 people.[1] The arcades are simple, carried on piers without capitals. The furnishings were made by Hatch and Sons, the wood carving being by C. J. Allen, and the stone carving by J. J. Millson.[3] The floor of the church is in black and white Italian marble, the pews, screens and reredos are in English oak, and the roof timbers in Canadian pitch pine.[1] Most of the stained glass is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. This includes the windows at the east end, which total 16 lights, the west window, and the windows in the south transept. There are also two aisle windows of 1950 by Ervin Bossányi.[1][3] The four-manual pipe organ was built in 1904 by Henry Willis II of Henry Willis & Sons, and was restored in 2006–07 by the same company.[1][5] According to the church website it is believed to be the largest extant four-manual Willis II organ still in its original condition and in everyday use.[1] There is a ring of eight bells, all of which were cast in 1904 by Mears and Stainbank.[1][6] In the Lady Lever Memorial is the chest tomb of Lady Lever, who died in 1913, and of William Lever, who died in 1925. On this are recumbent bronze effigies by Sir W. Goscombe John.[3]

Chapel yard

In addition to Lever family vault, the churchyard contains the war graves of six British Army soldiers of World War I and two soldiers and an airman of World War II.[7]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christ Church, Port Sunlight.
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Home, Christ Church, Port Sunlight, retrieved 2 December 2013
  2. ^ a b c Historic England, "Christ Church, Port Sunlight (1075492)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 2 December 2013
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
  4. ^ "William and Segar Owen". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. National Pipe Organ Register, British Institute of Organ Studies
    , retrieved 2 December 2013
  6. ^ Port Sunlight, Christ Church, Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, retrieved 2 December 2013
  7. ^ [1] CWGC Cemetery Report casualty list.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christ_Church,_Port_Sunlight&oldid=1172524273"