Christ Church, Eaton

Christ Church stands beside the A536 south of Eaton in Cheshire. Built between 1856 and 1858, it is a small Gothic Revival church designed by Raffles Brown. The authors of the Buildings of England series call it a ‘tiny church in fantasy Gothic’. The building is made of rubble stone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. Its plan includes a four-bay nave, a chancel with a north vestry, a south porch and a west tower. The church is listed at Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. The church’s west tower rises in three stages above a plinth. Angle buttresses and a stair turret mark its corners. A battlemented parapet crowns the tower, which has a small pyramidal roof. Inside, a hammerbeam roof carries floral bosses. The stained glass includes a northeast window by the architect, made by Forrest and Brownley of Liverpool. A 1969 window is by Francis Skeat. Three bells hang in the tower, the oldest cast in 1815 by William Dobson, the others in 1876 by John Taylor & Co. The churchyard holds the war grave of a Second World War Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officer. The graveyard also contains the graves of local families laid out in orderly rows. From the porch, visitors look across the churchyard to the tower and nave. The building’s modest scale and careful detailing make it a quiet landmark in the village.