St Christopher, Gunnerton

St Christopher is a Grade II parish church at Gunnerton, Northumberland, in the Diocese of Newcastle and the parish of Chollerton. It is the only surviving church in England by John Cyril Hawes.

Overview

Historic England lists a church of 1899 by Revd Hawes in Arts and Crafts style: rock-faced snecked stone with a Welsh slate roof; nave, chancel, south porch and north chapel. The west end has a large round window. The four-bay nave has a south porch with a round-headed doorway under a canted catslide roof; the door has carved leaf panels and period lettering. Overhanging eaves rest on curved wood struts on stone corbels. The higher chancel roof is half-hipped at the east and projects as a bell turret on curved struts. Interior ceilings are canted and wood-boarded.

Hawes designed the church after a model shown at the Royal Academy; Bishop Wilfrid Hornby invited him to build it at Gunnerton. It was consecrated in November 1900. Later restoration by Vincente Stienlet won the Hadrian Award in 2007; the west window is a later circular design by William Tillyer. Hawes later became a Roman Catholic priest and built widely in Western Australia and the Bahamas.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1155349
• British Listed Buildings: Church of St Christopher
• Chollerton Churches: Gunnerton