[1] It is located on Chadderton's eastern border with Oldham, contiguous with the Freehold area of that town, and with Cowhill and Butler Green.

[2] The hamlet lay at the northern end of Block Lane between the present-day Christ Church and Freehold tram stop.

A notable large residence, known simply as 'Block Lane' was described by the local historian James Butterworth as the abode of a Rev.

Both the Black Ridings hamlet and the adjacent Block Lane house are shown on the early Ordnance Survey maps of the area.

[3][4] By the mid 19th century the area had become a centre of industrial activity with four coal pits and two sandstone quarries in close proximity.

The funds were so quickly forthcoming that the foundation stone was laid in May and the new church was completed and opened by December of that same year, and the first vicar, the Rev'd Thomas Chapman.

Christ Church is numerically one of the largest parishes in the Oldham West deanery of Manchester diocese with a population of about 15,000 in 2021.

The tower has four stages, angle buttresses, an embattled parapet, and there is a square stair turret with a pyramidal top.