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150 years at Christ Church Lancaster
A LANCASTER church which started life as a chapel where the town's poor and grammar school pupils worshipped under the same roof, has survived for 150 years with its original ethos intact.
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Christ Church still cares for those less fortunate, partly through the winter night shelter for the city's homeless; and also continues its link with Lancaster Royal Grammar School whose boarders regularly attend services.
It's a legacy of which its founder, Lancaster MP, Samuel Gregson, would be proud.
"When the church was built, it represented the extremes of society and though the extremes are not quite as clear today, Gregson would recognise them, said vicar, Rev Phil Hudd.
When Gregson originally bought the land, funded the construction and endowed the church, it was to serve the inmates of the nearby workhouse. When the grammar school relocated from the castle area to its present site, he saw no reason why their pupils couldn't use the new chapel too.
"It was quite forward looking for the time to have poor house boys worshipping in the same church as the grammar school boys," Mr Hudd explained.
And both groups could enjoy the grandeur of their new church which was beautifully and richly decorated inside.
Christ Church was built using sandstone from nearby Scotch Quarry and Lake District slate. It cost around 3,000.
The church's consecration on September 23, 1857, was reported in detail by the Lancaster Gazette whose editor, E C Quarme also produced a beautifully illuminated and illustrated Victorian album to mark the occasion.
In Christ Church's early years, the Wyresdale Road area was pretty undeveloped and surrounded by woodland so functioned without a parish.
However, it continued to be well supported by the Gregson family and gained a reputation for good music thanks to the grammar school choir.
By 1873, housing development had increased the population and a parish was established.
So many people who were prominent in Lancaster's development as a city had links with Christ Church so it is perhaps unsurprising that a procession organised through the parish in 1957 to mark its centenary was so well supported.
As well as the main church and the 'iron church' in Dale Street, the parish also boasted a church in Ridge Lane which is now the Salvation Army building.
The parish serves Moorlands, Freehold, Ridge, Newton as well as the new estates of Standen Park and Standen Gate. Since Mr Hudd became vicar in 1999, almost 1,000 homes have been built in the area and with plans for many more on the former Nightingale Hall and Moor Hospital sites, the parish is set to grow.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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