Building record 1583/1/1 - Church of St Christopher

<1> Richards R, 1947, Old Cheshire Churches, Richards R 1947 /278-280 (Book). SCH2309.

Church of St Christopher, Shrigley Road. Development associated with the Downes Chantry Chapel in C15. One theory suggests that Geoffrey Downes endowed a chantry at Pott in 1492 with a chantry priest. After the Reformation, the building was left as a Chapel of Ease to Prestbury. Another explanation is that a church was founded in late C14 & completed by the addition of the Downes Chantry Chapel

<2> Department of the Environment, 1971-2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, Vol 5, p.93 (Report). SCH1934.

Present building is mainly C15. Coursed sandstone rubble & slate roof. Nave & aisles of 2-bays, chancel, W tower & small south porch. Angled buttresses & rolled copings. W tower of 4 stages. Int: S aisle arcade of octagonal piers. N aisle carried on a cluster of 3 colonettes. Nave has slightly curved, open, wooden ceiling, carried on braces springing from moulded corbels. Chancel roof of open pitch type. E window has some original stained glass restored in 1872. Box pews throughout nave & aisle brought from Gawsworth in C19. 2 bells by Robert Crowch c.1430.

<3> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, p.313-314 (Book). SCH3078.

<4> Anonymous, 1985, St Christopher's Church (Book). SCH2982.

<5> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Turner R C 1988 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Minor repairs and replastering inside the north aisle revealed the inside profile of the blocked medieval doorway seen on the outside. The brick blocking was shown to contain a cast-iron fireplace of late C18/early C19 designed to heat a box pew.

<6> Higham N J, 1984-9, Professor Nick Higham's Aerial Photographs, 1988/2/1/25-7 (Aerial Photograph). SCH7659.

<7> Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, 2022, St. Christopher's Church, Pott Shrigley: Archaeological Watching Brief, R4700 (Client Report). SCH9456.

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken in 2021 at St Christopher’s Church to monitor groundworks undertaken to reduce the terrain on the west side of the lichgate for the eventual installation of a wheelchair accessible ramp for the church. The excavation area was directly alongside the south wall of the lychgate. The topsoil was approximately 0.1 to 0.2m deep, and was a dark greyish black loamy silt. The current church wall which connects to the 20th century lychgate is built parallel to an older wall, with redeposited material creating a raised landscape within the churchyard interior and creating a revetment effect. Underneath the redeposited material, a partial single course of a former wall was found 1 metre on the interior side of the current wall.