Facilities and features
Accessibility
In the Community Centre @ Christ Church
In the Community Centre @ Christ Church
There is bike rack outside the church near the South Porch door.
Additional paid-for parking is available close by.
In the Community Centre @ Christ Church
A Defibrillator is situated on the outside wall to the right of the main entrance of the Community Centre @ Christ Church
All our written communications are printed in large print. If you need something made larger please call the parish office (01793) 522832
Assistance dogs are welcome, warning preferred so we are better able to assist you.
The church and community centre are both accessible for wheelchairs
Our Building
The church has many beautiful stained glass windows to explore and ponder
Our church building is normally open daily from 9am to around 4.30pm (later in the lighter evenings). All are welcome to come in for private prayer, and tealight candles are provided in the Lady Chapel in the South East corner of the church, which can be lit and placed in the metal candle stand
Christ Church has been at the heart of the Swindon Community for nearly 170 years. Over this time it has served as a place of worship, commemoration, remembrance, celebration and community.
For more about Christ Church's history and for a virtual tour visit: http://www.christchurchswindon.co.uk/tour.php
Details of listed status
CRICKLADE STREET SU 1583 NE SWINDON (east side) 8/60 Christ Church 2.10.51 II* Anglican parish church, 1851, by George Gilbert Scott. Rock-faced sandstone with Bath ashlar dressings. Slate roofs. Nave with aisles, transepts, chancel and west tower. Side organ chamber and Lady chapel to chancel. Lobbies to sides of tower, and south porch of 1916. Early Decorated style. 2-light aisle windows with quatrefoil heads, 4-light transept windows and 5-light chancel east window, all Geometric tracery with slight cusping. Tower of 3 stages, with west gabled porch and corner buttresses. 2-light belfry openings within 2 deep-chamfered orders. Broach spire with lucarnes at bottom, quatrefoils above clock of 1843. Lady chapel, 1935 by Harold Brakspear with canopied figure of The Good Shepherd. Interior: 3 bays arcade on octagonal columns, nave and aisles extended into transepts and western bay with little break. 8 clerestory windows. 4-bay roof of crown posts and arch braces to stained rafters and boarding. Rood beam. Chancel raised by 2 steps, 3 bays and one arch to side chambers. Capitals with semi- naturalistic leaves. Encaustic tiles. Chancel was refurbished 1883. Font: West end of aisle, alabaster, square with octagonal corners on columns, 1905. Reredos 1896, marble and alabaster with panels of the Expulsion from Eden and the Annunciation. Organ, Gray and Davison of London. Pulpit, 1906, marble and alabaster, octagonal on columned base. 4 figures, and marble balustrade. Lectern: Brass eagle of 1881. Much glass of 1855 - 60 and of period 1891-1902 and in west window of north transept, view through hollyhocks of The Lawn, Goddard and Christ Church Oxford arms, 1931, by M. Travers. Marble war memorial of Great War victims by font. Many of the fittings were donations of the Goddard family. (Original plan in NMR 1942/274).
Listing NGR: SU1575583902 https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1283770
We are pleased to have attained Silver Level in the A Rocha ECO church programme. We are currently working towards the Gold level and have installed bird boxes in our churchyard and burial ground to try to encourage birds to nest. For more information from our Eco Group please contact Anne Grainger [email protected]
Music and Worship
Christ Church Guild of Bellringers
We are a voluntary group from a variety of backgrounds and age groups and are always interested in recruiting more people.
We are very fortunate to be able to ring regularly on one of the finest peals of ten bells in the country, cast and installed by the Taylor Foundry of Loughborough in 1924.
We practise the English art of change ringing where each bell, in sequence, is rotated full circle (mouth up to mouth up) by means of a rope attached to the wheel of the bell striking once at each revolution. Change ringing is based on the mathematics of permutations. The order of the bells is changed in a systematic way but instead of using musical notation, ringers memorise these permutations thereby exercising the brain as well as the body!
Learning to handle a bell can take anything from weeks to months at a weekly ‘tied’ bell practice, depending on a variety of factors, before proceeding to ring on ‘open’ bells and the mysteries of change ringing! The finer points of both these activities require application and commitment.
Our main objectives are to ring for our church services, including weddings and special events and to ensure continuity of the art of change ringing by passing on our skills to new members.
There is no charge incurred in learning to ring. We do not get paid for ringing except for weddings and occasional funerals. Access to the tower is via 46 steep spiral stairs!
As well as service to the church, ringing is a great social activity. Once competent, ringers will be welcomed at towers all over the country. Change ringing also takes place in Australia and New Zealand, North America and a few places in Africa.
We normally ring on Sunday mornings from 9.15 to 10.00 am and Sunday evenings from 5.30 to 6.30 pm. We have a weekly practice on Tuesday from 7.30 to 9.00 pm. Initial teaching would be specially arranged by our Ringing Master, Gordon Belcher, outside our regular practice times.
Contact the Tower Secretary for more information. Alison Alcorn at [email protected]
We are members of the Swindon Branch of the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Association of Church Bellringers - http://www.swindongandb.moonfruit.co.uk
Music events include annual events including Jazz Festival, Folk Festival, Organ recitals, Swindon Music Fesitval (choir and organ classes) and many community organised concerts across all musical genres. See https://www.facebook.com/Christchurchswindon/ and https://www.facebook.com/CCCCSwindon/ for details.
Our organ has been recently refurbished. For more information contact Director of Music, Tim Eyles, (Tel: 07817 361681)
We have a 1662 Service of Holy Communion on the first Sunday of each month at 8am in the Lady Chapel. We also have Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer/Evensong on the 3rd Sunday of the month at 6.30pm. Four times a year this is a full choral evensong sung by our robed choir.
We have a thriving robed choir of around 15 members, ranging in age from 20 to over 80. Rehearsals are in the church on Thursday evenings between 7.30 and 9 pm and for half an hour before each service.
We sing a huge range of musical styles, from Renaissance polyphony to the baroque glories of Purcell, to Victorian favourites by Stanford and Wood and contemporary church music by composers such as John Rutter, Richard Shephard, and Philip Moore. The choir is required to sing at the 10.00 am communion service on the second to fifth Sundays of each month (August is choir holiday) and at 6.30 pm services except the third Sunday of the month. Four times a year we sing a full choral evensong and we usually visit a cathedral at least once a year to sing evensong. Recent visits have included Bristol, Winchester and Llandaff. In 2016 we sang evensong in Merton College, Oxford and at Wells and Salisbury Cathedrals.
If you would like to find out more or to join Christ Church Choir, please contact the Director of Music, Tim Eyles, (Tel: 07817 361681) for an informal chat. There are no auditions, but a reasonable degree of commitment is expected.
TOAST is a music group set up for children and adults who love to sing and play instruments to praise our wonderful Saviour. Toast stands for (T)o (O)ur (A)lmighty (S)aviour (T)hanks.
We play at the All Age services which are the first Sunday of the month at 10 am, we meet at 9.15 am to practice before the service. We also have other practices throughout the year where we learn new songs, which tends to be on a Saturday morning.
Our musicians consist of a keyboard player, bass guitarist, A Djembe player (Indian drum), 3 acoustic guitarists, violinist and amazing singers.
Everyone is welcome to join us if you are interested in joining please call Tracy Jackson 07947345609
Groups, Courses and Activities
Please contact the Rev Canon Simon Stevenette (01793) 529166 or email [email protected].
Please contact the Rev Canon Simon Stevenette (01793) 529166 or email [email protected].
Please contact the Rev Canon Simon Stevenette (01793) 529166 or email [email protected].
The Annual Swindon Old Town Beer Festival takes place on our site each May and normally attracts around 1,000 people. For more information please contact our Community Centre Manager on [email protected] or call 01793 617237
Many community groups meet at the Community Centre @ Christ Church. For more information https://www.facebook.com/CCCCSwindon/ (01793) 617237.
Please contact the Rev Canon Simon Stevenette (01793) 529166 or email [email protected].
Our community centre holds many weekly health classes and activities; find out more at: https://ccccswindon.co.uk/page/activities
Held at Bath Road Methodist Church, Bath Road, Swindon SN1 4BA at 3pm on the first Sunday of every month. For the whole family. Crafts and a scrumptious tea. Please enter via the door to the right of the main church entrance
Help for Visitors
Click http://www.christchurchswindon.co.uk/tour.php to see our virtual tour and download the latest leaflet.
For more see the 'History' tab http://www.christchurchswindon.co.uk (Bottom, far right of the page).
An updated book is expected to be published at the end of the year.
For more information, contact [email protected].
Open daily from 9am to around 5pm (later in summer). Hand sanitiser is available in the church.
We hope you find comfort and peace in this quiet place. Whatever or whoever is on your mind today, be still before God, who cares for you and those you love.
Other Features
We accept donations of food for Swindon Food Collective
We have a state of the art large screen and audio capability, including recording facilities. For more information contact Mike Palmer (01793) 436220
The Burial Ground at Christ Church is open for new burials. If you have lost a loved one and wish to enquire about arranging their final resting place at Christ Church, please call Carol, the parish administrator (01793) 522832, or speak to your funeral director.
The burial records for Christ Church can be searched here: http://www.christchurchswindon.co.uk/burial.php
Queries to the burial board clerk: [email protected]
Bookings in the church and the community centre can be made online at https://ccccswindon.co.uk, via email to [email protected] or by calling 01793 617237.
If you wish to book the church for a wedding service, please contact our parish administrator/clerk, Carol, in the first instance by emailing [email protected] or calling 01793 522832 as we will need to ask you a few brief questions to be sure you can legally be married in Christ Church. Carol can then arrange to see you for a chat and book your wedding on your behalf