File:Christ Church, Downend (4787421150).jpg

Christ Church, Downend, Gloucestershire was built as a chapel of ease to St James, Mangotsfield, in 1831 and was elevated to a parish church in 1874 when an Act of Parliament made Downend a independent parish. It contains memorial plaques to WG Grace and other members of the Grace family.

During the decade before its elevation to parish church status the curate of Downend had been an Irishman, the Rev John Walter Dann. It's likely that, from 1874-1878, the then Vicar of Mangotsfield, the Rev Alfred Peache, doubled as Vicar of Downend with Dann as curate probably taking most of the services. Then, in 1878, Dann was ordained Vicar and he remained the incumbent until his death in 1915. Almost certainly Dann was the first occupant of the Vicarage.

Alfred Peache and John Dann were both interesting characters. Alfred, born in Lambeth in 1818, was the second son of the industrialist James Courthope Peache who, amongst other things, was responsible for the design of the Paxman "Peache Patent" High-Speed Single-Acting Steam Engines manufactured by Paxman's of Colchester. During a long life James amassed a considerable fortune. Meanwhile Alfred was a humble curate of Heckfield in Hampshire after previously having served as a curate in Mangotsfield under the Rev Robert Brodie. Brodie, though styled a Perpetual Curate rather than a Vicar*, was the parish priest of Mangotsfield, a parish which, at the time, included Downend and Staple Hill. In 1858 James Peache died aged 76 and, a year later, Robert Brodie died aged 69. By consequence, Alfred inherited a considerable fortune from his father and the incumbency of Mangotsfield from his former boss. He became one of the wealthiest clergymen in England and became one of the most important benefactors of the Church of England. Some 20 or 30 English vicarages and churches, the London College of Divinity and Huron College in Toronto, Canada all became Peache beneficiaries. Included amongst them were the vicarages at Mangotsfield and Downend. It's not certain when Alfred Peache retired as the parish priest of Mangotsfield but certainly, by 1891, he was living in Twickenham where he died in the final months of 1900. Peache Road, which runs between Downend and Mangotsfield, is named after him.

John Dann who became parish priest of Downend in 1878 was born in County Cork in 1842. When he died in 1915 he was sufficiently well known in cricketing circles to merit the following obituary in the 1915/16 Wisden's Almanack:

"THE REV. JOHN WALTER DANN, M. A. brother-in-law of the late Dr. W. G. Grace, was born at Fermoy, County Cork, on November 20, 1842, and died at Downend, of which parish he had been Vicar for 47** years, on July 22. He was never much of a cricketer, but took a keen interest in the game, and played occasionally for the Thornbury and Downend clubs. He took a very active part in the formation of the Gloucestershire County C. C., undertaking practically all the correspondence in the matter for the late Dr. H. M. Grace. In his younger days he was an excellent lawn tennis player, and he played quite a good game until he was 70."

W G Grace, the most famous cricketer of all time, came from a Downend family and John Dann's status as his brother-in-law came as a result of his marriage on 23 June 1869 to WG's sister, Elizabeth Blanche Grace. That was while Downend was still a Chapel of Ease so the marriage took place in its mother church, St James, Mangotsfield. John Dann was born eight years before WG – enough for him to have been appointed tutor to the young cricketer. He also outlived him by eight years.

• Up until the 1860s century some parish priests were styled perpetual curates rather than vicars. Technically it was a lesser order but, in 1868, Parliament passed an act which authorised all perpetual curates to use the title vicar.