Description:A postcard view of the interior of Christchurch, taken after its 1903 extension. The illumination is by oil lamps.
Christ Church stands at the corner of Chapel Lane and Commonside in Gentleshaw. Originally built as a chapel of ease in the Parish of Longdon, the first building consisted of a short nave and transepts with a belfry, opened on 28 August 1837 by the Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt. Rev. Samuel Butler. The battlemented west tower was added in the late 1850s. In 1877 the church was extended, with a vestry and apsidal chancel added to the east end. In 1903 a large new chancel, extension to the nave, organ chamber and transepts (for the Choir Vestry and Vicar's Vestry) was opened. Built by Thomas Mason of Hednesford to designs by architects Joyce and Sandy of Stafford, it was orginally intended to have been part of a larger scheme which was never finished. Therefore, the earlier church still stands as part of the structure.
This ‘Teesee Series' postcard was published locally as one of Smith's Series, The Stores, Gentleshaw.