Christ Church High Harrogate

St John's Chantry Chapel

St John's : Christ Church 1749 : Christ Church 1831 : Alterations 1860 : Christ Church 1973

Early Days The present distinguished town of Harrogate , nationally famous for its spa waters and, more recently, as a leading conference centre, is a relatively modern town which developed as a result of the exploitation of the healing potential of its underground springs in the mid to late 18th century. Before that it was a sleepy hamlet known as ‘Harrowgate'. The history of our church is intricately bound-up with Harrogate 's development as a spa town.
There is evidence from the will of Thomas Linley in 1439 that a medieval chantry chapel existed a short distance from the present church near what is known as St John's well on the Stray. Linley specifically left £12 to the chantry priest to say masses for the repose of his soul over three years. Presumably it was demolished at the Reformation as no traces of it remain today.
Our real story begins in 1749 when a Chapel of St John was built for the worship of those who had come to take the waters of the developing spa town. It was a small building capable of seating about 100 people and was a chapel-of-ease to the mother church of St John the Baptist at Knaresborough, an ancient medieval town with a royal castle. It could be said that the then Rector of Knaresborough showed great missionary zeal in establishing a chapel in the fledgling township of Harrogate . Although known as ‘St John's Chapel', because of its links with its mother church at Knaresborough, it was dedicated on 17 June 1749 as ‘Christ Church'.
The links with the mother church at Knaresborough remained until 1852 when Christ Church became a parish in its own right, and the patronage passed from the Rector of Knaresborough to the Bishop of Ripon. In due time, as Harrogate grew and prospered four further parishes were formed from Christ Church, High Harrogate: St John's Bilton in 1858, St Peter's in the town centre in 1870, St Luke's in 1898, and St Andrew's Starbeck in 1911.

With the increasing fame of Harrogate's healing waters, bringing many distinguished, aristocratic and royal visitors to the new town, the little chapel of St John soon was outgrown by its burgeoning congregation of both parishioners and visitors and in December 1829 a special meeting was held at which, by a large majority, it was decided that a new church must be built.
The Duchy of Lancaster provided a site for the new building on a portion of the Stray adjoining the old chapel. Legal difficulties delayed the building of the new church, but by the end of September 1831 the new church was ready for use. The architect was John Oates of Huddersfield , and his new church was described by the York Herald and Leeds Intelligencer as ‘a prominent and beautiful object of admiration from all the surrounding parts of this celebrated watering place'. The old chapel of St John was dismantled and rebuilt in the centre of the town at the end of James Street as a Congregational Chapel; it has since been demolished.

The new church, in an austere Early English style predating the exuberance of Victorian Gothic Revival which flowered later in that century, comprised an elegant west tower and a nave with long lancet windows. Internally was a gallery on three sides, and a central pulpit at the east end of the nave, behind which was a small apsidal chancel with altar table.. The organ was in the west gallery and a plastered ceiling concealed the roof timbers. The church was lit by oil lamps. Narrow pews with vertical backs [no doubt very uncomfortable] provided seating for 1,250 worshippers. Beneath the church, extending for the whole length of the building, was a vaulted crypt within which the burial spaces were to be sold to raise money for the building fund. Funds were also to be raised by the sale of pews, thereby reserving much of the seating to their purchasers – this was reversed by a Consistory Court judgement in 1886 which said that ‘the sale of pews in and since 1831 was not of legal effect under Ecclesiastical Law, and the pews were in law the property of the parish'.
The total cost of the new church was £4,500, the largest part of which was raised through generous donations including £300 from the Duchy of Lancaster, and £50 each from the Archbishop of York and the bishops of Durham and Chester .
The church was dedicated at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday 1 October 1831 by the Bishop of Chester, Dr John Bird Sumner [who was later to be Archbishop of Canterbury from 1848-62]. Harrogate at that time was in the diocese of Chester , which had been formed at the Reformation from parts of the dioceses of York and Lincoln. It wasn't until 1836 that our present diocese of Ripon [lately re-named ‘Ripon & Leeds'] was created.
The Feast of Dedication is still celebrated today on the first Sunday of October when this very special event in the life of our church is remembered.

Additions and alterations to the church building On 23 November 1860 the Vestry Meeting approved a proposal to enlarge the church ‘to meet the requirements of a greatly augmented residential population'. The plans, by the eminent Bradford architects Lockwood and Mawson, were to provide chancel, sanctuary and transepts at the east end of the existing church.
As well as the need for extra accommodation there had been a shift in architectural and liturgical fashion in the 30 years since the new church had been built. A great revival of medievalism leading to the re-discovery of Gothic architecture and a greater emphasis on good music and liturgy had taken place from the second half of the 19th century and its effect was being felt even as far north as Harrogate. These changes were reflected in the design of the substantial additions. The style of the new work was muted Decorated Gothic, a touch more ornate than the nave, with flowery capitals and carved heads on the corbels, which, it has to be said, look more like Victorian burgesses than medieval monarchs!
The new chancel, sanctuary and transepts were dedicated on Sunday 29 June 1862 . The work had also included removing the nave ceiling to expose the roof timbers, and rebuilding the organ in a special chamber alongside the sanctuary that is now the Lady Chapel. Behind the new altar at the east end was a carved reredos, that is still in situ behind the present reredos. The lengthening of the church, and the opening up of a vista which culminated in the high altar, necessitated the removal of the pulpit, previously at the centre of eastern nave, to the north side of the nave. No longer did Christ Church serve as a preaching tabernacle, but was now fitted for the changing fashions of Anglican liturgy.
Overall the new chancel and transepts gave added length and dignity to the church interior, but externally it produced the odd perspective of a tower too narrow for the length of the building it protects. At either side of the tower was added a porch and stairs, giving easy access to the both nave and galleries.
In 1886 a faculty was granted for the replacement of the old pews with more comfortable seating, which caused some degree of controversy resulting in a Consistory Court being held, which found in favour of the scheme, which also included considerable alteration to the galleries.
There were still some changes to come. In 1906 Canon D.S. Guy, who had grandiose plans for the building of a completely new church, was complaining to the Vestry Meeting that in the meanwhile they must tolerate very insufficient vestry accommodation, an organ buried away where half its strength could not be utilised, a choir sadly muffled, and the evils of galleries, which lay not only in their unsightliness, but in the extreme difficulty of preserving order and reverence in them'.
Although his vision of a new church was never realised they were at least able to deal with two of the problems he complained of. On the 1 August 1908 a brand new organ by Messrs Norman & Beard was dedicated, having been built in the north transept. By October 1908, in the space left by the old organ, a Lady Chapel had been created, but due to lack of funds for the furnishings, it was not completed until the following year. The cramped vestry facilities were solved by the building of a substantial vestry suite for the clergy and choir against the south chancel wall. It was regarded as a memorial to those who served and fell in the First World Ward together with the churchyard cross, designed by Austin and Paley, and was dedicated by the Bishop of Ripon on 13 May 1921 . On this great occasion the choir wore their new dark red cassocks for the first time, which had replaced their previous sombre black attire.

Christ Church today

In 1973 the font was moved from its position under the west tower and re-sited in the south transept. Some seating was removed at the west end of the nave in order to provide space for a handsome oak screen, filled with hand-made amber glass, across the entire width of the nave, thereby creating a Narthex area at the entrance to the church, which serves as a welcome area for worshippers.
In 1988 the sale of the old school building in Church Square enabled a beautiful Church Centre to be built adjoining the north-west corner of the church, consisting of a hall, meeting rooms, kitchen, and offices. The old school became part of what is now St Aidan's Church of England High School, in the parish just across The Stray in Oatlands Drive.
The Parish Centre has proved to be wonderful asset to the parish and is now professionally run as a busy community centre serving both church and town. Situated as we are the midst of the beautiful Stray it provides a splendid venue for a comprehensive variety of meetings and events. The brass cross above the door to the hall, dedicated after the Eucharist on Millennium night, gives witness to the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do here at Christ Church

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