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Entrance Fee to the Church:
No charge is made for entry but a suggested donation of £2 per adult; 50p per student; children free, will help immensely towards the running costs and maintenance of the church. It costs around £600 per day to maintain the church.
Special
Guided Evening Tours - Tickets £8.00 per person (including Souvenir Booklet)
These
tours are not suitable for children under 10.
Priory Standard Guide Tours - Adult £3.00; Child accompanied by an adult
50p.
Priory Extended Standard Tours - £3.50.
Priory Standard Guided Tours for School Parties - Adult £1; Child 50p
(not applicable to schools within the parish); British and Foreign Students
£1.
All the guided tours must be pre-booked from the Head Verger at the
Priory on (01202) 485804.
Adults:
£2; Students/accompanied children (8 years or over) 50p.
Contact the Head Verger prior to your visit for times of when tower
visits will be available.
Adults 50p. Students/Children 30p.
Special Guided Tours of the Priory. Tours start at 6.30pm, last for about two and a half hours and include parts of the Priory not always open to visitors (e.g. Tower, Crypt, Roof Space and Archives). Total 337 steps.
These
tours are not suitable for children under 10.
Pre-booking is essential. Tickets £8.00 per person (including Souvenir
Booklet) obtainable from the Head Verger at the Priory.
The 2004 tours were very successful and were quickly sold-out therefore you should book as early as possible so that if necessary, further dates can be organised.
Guides can be provided by pre-arrangement through the Vergers to give an organised party a full conducted tour of the church. A charge is made for such a tour, which usually takes about an hour, a further 20 minutes should be added if a Tower/Museum visit is wanted, when available.
All
guided tours of the Priory must be pre-booked from the Head Verger at the Priory,
tel: 01202-485804.
Tower visits are available on most Sunday afternoons, Tuesday mornings, Tuesday
afternoons and Friday mornings.
The Museum is open at certain times during the summer season, preferably by
appointment.
Prices:
Priory Standard Guide Tours - Adult £3.00; Child accompanied
by an adult 50p.
Priory Extended Standard Tours - £3.50
Priory Standard Guided Tours for School Parties - Adult £1; Child 50p
(not applicable to schools within the parish); British and Foreign Students
£1.
Tower: Adult £2 Students/accompanied children (8 years or over) 50p.
Museum: Adult 50p Students 30p Child 30p
The beautiful and historic town of Christchurch is situated in a unique position at the confluence of the Rivers Avon and Stour in East Dorset.
Christchurch is easily accessible and can be reached in the following ways;
The M3 and M27 provide easy access from London and the South East, and the M40 and A34 provide access from The Midlands. The A35 links Southampton with Christchurch and continues through the town on to Bournemouth, Poole and the South West.
South-West Trains
provide a regular rail service between London Waterloo, Southampton, Christchurch,
Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. Connecting regional and direct inter-City trains
operate from Bournemouth.
Details can be obtained from National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950 or on their
website.
Bournemouth International Airport is actually located in the Borough of Christchurch approximately five miles from the town centre. For further information telephone: (01202) 364000 or see their website.
Christchurch is only 9 miles from the port of Poole where Brittany Ferries sail to Cherbourg in France and Condor Ferries operate scheduled services to the Channel Islands. Excellent roads make Christchurch easily accessible to visitors from Northern Europe via the ports of Portsmouth and Southampton.
You can also get maps and directions from where you live to Christchurch by going to the Multimap website.
If you would like further information on Christchurch, please take a look at our Related Websites page.
Accessibility
The Priory Church was built over 900 years ago without accessibility in mind but most of the church is accessible to visitors with mobility, hearing and sight restrictions.
Hard of Hearing
An Induction Loop service is available in the Nave, Great Quire and the Lady Chapel. Simply switch your hearing aid to the 'T' position to block out surrounding noise. This will help you to hear sermons and speeches more clearly.
An Amplified Service is also available is most areas of the church.
Visually Impaired/Blind
We
have a large print version of our 'Welcome Leaflet' which provides a brief history
of the church and a floor plan showing items of particular interest to visitors.
Many of the statues, memorials and chantries have tactile surfaces which can
be explored with your hands to get a good picture of what they look like. There
is a scale model of the church at the east end of the North Quire Aisle which
at the cost of just 20p, will light up and play a recording of the Priory Bells
and the organ.
Guide Dogs and other Working Dogs are welcome.
Wheelchair Access
There is level access through the North Porch into the Priory. The doors and aisles are wide enough to facilitate wheelchair access. The following areas of the church are unfortunately inaccessible to wheelchair users and are indicated on the floor plan to the left. A photo of the steps/stairs in some of these areas can be viewed by clicking on the relevant link (this will open in a new window). This may give you a better idea of how steep the stairs are etc.
Disabled Parking
The Priory Church does not have it's own Car Park but a space can usually be reserved in the Priory House Car Park if you ring the Verger in advance. Alternatively, there is a Pay and Display Car Park located behind the Priory Church.
Toilets
There are toilets in a block at the rear of the church that includes a disabled toilet which uses the Radar Key system. The key can be obtained from the Bookstall in the church.
Future Developments
In the near future we are hoping to add an interactive virtual tour of certain areas of the church which are currently inaccessible to visitors with mobility difficulties. The tour would allow visitors to 'visit' these areas by viewing them in full 360 degree panoramas on a monitor.
St Michael's Loft, built over the Lady Chapel in the 15th century, was the last part of the fabric of the church to be completed. It is a cosecrated chapel dedicated to St Michael, but the original use for which it was intended is not really known. That remains one of the medieval mysteries of the Priory.
The altar, piscina and corbels at the esatern end of the chapel suggest its definite use as a chapel, and it may be that the original intention was that it should be used as a training chapel for the oblates and noviciates coming into the Augustinian Order. The Augustinians at Christchurch were, from the middle of the 12th century, canons regular who had to be ordained.
The
Augustinians, although living a monastic life were not members of a closed order
and over a period, acquired pastoral responsibilities towards the townspeople
and permission was granted by Bishop Morley of Winchester to use the loft as
a school. Between 1662 and 1869 it was
used first as a grammar school, and then as a private school run by the Vicar.
From here the schoolboys in the 18th century used to watch the smugglers bringing their contraband in carts across the marshes. There is a lens in the wall of the stairway on the south side through which a light could be shone as a signal to the smugglers on the marshes.
In 1981 the loft was opened up as the Priory Museum. The exhibits include some remains from Saxon times, a large tithe map of 1842, and various prints, paintings, photographs and items from the schoolroom.
Among the items of medieval sculpture are: what is thought to be the tomb slab of Stephen de Stapelbrugge, a Knight Templar; a damaged piece, possibly of Pope Gregory the Great (St Gregory) celebrating mass at the north end of an altar; a piece showing the Adoration of the Infant Jesus by the Three Kings or Magi; and finally Christ crowning the Madonna. The latter is vety rare in Britain. in the 13th century there was a growing movement to worship the Virgin Mary and this became a heresy.
The museum is well worth a visit. It is open for Easter, closes briefly and is open again from May to October inclusive. Even if you have visited the museum before it's worth coming back as the exhibits are contantly changing and being added to all the time.
The door to the Museum is located in the South Quire Aisle adjacent to the Draper Chantry. The climb up the 75 stone steps is well worth the effort, not only for the artefacts but also for the spectacular views out of each window. The charge for Admission is 50p for an adult and 30p for students and children.
The Priory History Consultant is Mr John Arnold, and the Curator of the Museum is Mrs D Edlund, email: museum@christchurchpriory.org
The gift shop, located in a separate building near the west door of the church, sells a wide variety of souvenirs and gifts, including china, glassware, postcards and pictures.
We also have a Bookstall in the Baptistry, at the west end of the church, which sells a selection of books, guide books, postcards, greetings cards and gifts.
Why not stop to buy yourself a souvenir to remind you of your visit to the Priory, or just to browse?
This is the plain text version of the Christchurch Priory website, if you want to see the full Priory site please click here.