Our History

After the Second World War many new houses were built in the Drift Road area to the north of Stamford town centre.  In 1959 the Diocese of Lincoln proposed to build a new mission church to serve this new area of the town. 


Willoughby Road was selected as the site and a large wooden hut was built.  This was originally dedicated on October 9th 1961 as "Christ Church" and was the daughter church to St Michael's.  When St Michael's was closed the following year, Christ Church was affiliated to St John's Church. 

For the next ten years the hut in Willoughby Road was used for regular worship and served the community during the week in a variety of ways.  It was a home for uniformed young people's groups, a play group, Churchwomen's Guild and a weekly Day Centre for the elderly.  

In 1975 the Diocese and the congregation felt that they needed a permanent building which could become a parish in it's own right.  Local architect Vic Chamberlain was appointed by the PCC and the diocese to design new church centre on the old Stamford Water Company site in Green Lane which had been recently acquired.  A building committed was led by Mr Peter Wise.  By selling some land at Willoughby Road the PCC raised enough funds to build stage one which comprised the vestries, kitchen, toilets and entrance hall.  This work was completed in 1978 by local builder Vic Couzens.

The Diocese soon gave permission for the work to begin on stage two.  The church was constructed on top of the redundant water tank.  This was a creative response to difficult site conditions and engineers completed rigorous tests to ensure the tank was strong enough to form the foundations to the new church.  The then Bishop of Grantham, the Rt. Rev. Dennis Hawker supported the project all the way.  The tank was originally used for storage.  In 2005 it was converted into a large basement room with toilet, kitchen and office and became the home of Teenzone whilst also being used for other activities.

Stage two was completed and the church was dedicated on October 13th by the Bishop of Grantham with over 300 people in attendance.  On 1 November 1992 Christ Church became a formal parish.  Please visit the rest of our site to see the many ways in which we continue to serve our local community.

Incumbents

Rev V Wilford             - Oct 1961 - Dec 1962
Rev St. John Lemon    - Oct 1963 - Apr 1966
Rev Derek Burden      - Nov 1966 - Apr 1974
Rev Timothy Dickens - Jul 1974 - Jun 1980
Rev David Schofield   - Aug 1981 - March 1990
Rev David Spicer        - Sep 1990 - Apr 1996
Rev Robert Mackrill    - Feb 1997 - April 2010
Rev Martyn Taylor      - Jun 2011 - July 2014
Rev Nikki Bates          - Jul 2014 - Nov 2018
Rev Anthony Laotan - Aug 2020 - present