Our Buildings and our Parish

History of the Parish

 

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Stone had been expanding in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and so to cater for this increase Christ Church parish was “carved” out of the existing parish of St. Michael, making a parish which consisted of the northern part of the town and also Barlaston, Meaford, Oulton, Moddershall and Tittensor.

Click here for a Map showing the Parish Boundary and Parish information.

 

The curate of St Michael’s Church, the Revd Francis Kitchin became the first vicar when the church was consecrated in 1840. The parishes of Oulton and Tittensor were created later in 1879 and 1882.  More recently the parish of Christ Church, Stone was recombined with the parish of Oulton-with-Moddershall to become a united benefice, with a single incumbent.

Our Church Building

Christ Church building is a stone-faced, brick built, Victorian Gothic structure whose foundation stone was laid on the 28th June 1838.

The present church building is the result of considerable rebuilding in 1885 and 1899 completed in 1900. Five light east windows in the chancel immediately attract attention. The five panels represent the chief events in the life of Christ and were donated as memorials. There are only two other stained glass windows. You can read more about this in a new post with copies of some photographs and booklet from 1900.

In 2000 a new parish centre and office was added. This give one large room, but with moving partitions to give two or three sepatrate rooms.

In 2009 a new church entrance was built, providing a single easy-access door to both the Church and the Church Centre, with a much larger area to meet and mingle.

Parish Records

Historic records of Christ Church, Stone have been deposited at Staffordshire Record Office, where they are available for consultation by the public. These include the parish registers of baptisms 1840-1970, marriages 1845-2011 (more recent records are with the Stafford Registrars Office), and burials 1840-1959.

A catalogue of these records is available in Gateway to the Past – the online catalogue of the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service. The Archive Service’s website provides further information on planning a visit to the office to consult records, should you wish to do so.

For a pdf leaflet containing the history of the parish, click history_of_parish_and_church.