Christ Church, North Shields

Christ Church, North Shields
Christ Church, North Shields, Tyne and Wear
Christ Church seen from the south west
Christ Church, North Shields Location in Tyne and Wear
Coordinates: 55°00′41″N 1°26′53″W / 55.011451°N 1.448102°W / 55.011451; -1.448102
OS grid reference	NZ 353 936
Location	North Shields, Tyne and Wear
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	About Christ Church
History
Founded	1654
Dedication	Christ Church
Consecrated	5 July 1668
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade II
Architect(s)	Robert Trollope, John Dodds
Architectural type	Church
Style	Georgian architecture
Groundbreaking	1654
Completed	1793

Christ Church, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England is an Anglican church in the parish of North Shields Christ Church, diocese of Newcastle. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building,

Christ Church was the first church to be built in North Shields, originally a small fishing village created by Prior Germanus of Tynemouth Priory in the thirteenth century. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Priory's decaying church had been used for worship by Tynemouth and North Shields residents, but in the mid-seventeenth century a replacement was needed, and Christ Church was begun in 1654. The original architect of the church is not known, but in 1663 the Yorkshire architect Robert Trollope was engaged to complete it, and it was consecrated on 5 July 1668 by John Cosin, Bishop of Durham.

In 1786, the Newcastle builder and architect John Dodds began to add a west tower to the church; this was completed in 1788. In 1792-3, the whole of the rest of the church was rebuilt to Dodds's designs, thus obliterating the work of Trollope and his predecessor(s).

John Grundy and Grace McCombie describe Dodds's Christ Church as "less ambitious" than the contemporary All Saints Church, Newcastle upon Tyne. Dodds had submitted plans for All Saints, but it was David Stephenson whose designs were chosen.

Christ Church was built of sandstone ashlar masonry, with a roof of Welsh slate. The battlemented three-storey west tower has a double-door, circular and round-headed windows and a belfry.