Christ Church URC history (part 3): Rev Storer Toms and the building of Christ Church

Christ Church is a grade II listed building, built in the gothic style, and faced with Kentish Ragstone outside and Bath stone inside. Storer Toms climbed the spire to place the weather vane at its top. The stone relief of the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples on the apse wall is a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting. Children from the congregation brought locally grown flowers to the architect and he incorporated them in the designs for the capitals at the top of the columns.

Memorial stained glass windows represent Christ the Saviour and the Good Shepherd, the four gospel writers, Peter and Paul, three first century Christian Deacons and the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.

The former Chase Side Chapel was converted to become the Lecture Hall and was used by the Sunday School and later the Boys' Brigade. In 1885 an extension was added to the church providing more toilets and a larger Deacons' vestry together with a church parlour, ladies' vestry and a kitchen. The minister and his family moved into a newly built manse behind the church in 1887.

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