Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity

Parish church with a long building history spanning from the late 11th century to the 19th century. The lower part of the tower dates to the late 11th or early 12th century; the nave arcades are early 13th century; the aisles were rebuilt and the tower heightened in the early 14th century; the porch is later 15th or early 16th century; the aisles were refenestrated and extended to embrace the tower in 1850 by John Dobson; and the chancel (which replaced a predecessor of around 1800) and vestry date to 1867, designed by F.R. Wilson at the expense of Merton College, Oxford.

The lower part of the tower is constructed of rubble stone, with other parts in squared stone, except for the chancel which has alternating bands of grey roughly-faced limestone and pink sandstone with ashlar dressings. The roof to the nave is graduated Lakeland slate; the aisles have 20th-century stainless steel roofs; the chancel and vestry roofs are banded purple Welsh slate with green fish-scale slates.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave with three-bay aisles later extended west, south porch, and a transeptal Craster Chapel at the east end of the north aisle, with a chancel and north vestry. The chancel is in 14th-century style with Geometrical tracery.

The three-stage tower has chamfered set-backs between the stages and below the parapet. Restored or 19th-century stepped buttresses flank the 19th-century two-light west window. The south wall of the lower stage shows a part-blocked trefoil-headed window above the aisle roof; the second stage has two square-headed windows on the west; the belfry has transomed openings of two trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoil spandrel; the parapet features trefoil-headed open panels and eight small pinnacles.

The south aisle has a diagonal south-west buttress and a tall chamfered plinth east of the porch. The flat-topped porch has a moulded four-centred arch with carved hoodmould stops and a niche on an angel corbel above, a cornice, and a parapet. Its interior shows old stone benches, a 19th-century roof with carved bosses, and a 19th-century doorway with boarded double doors, below weathering of an earlier porch roof. Five 12th and 13th-century cross slabs are set into the internal walls; other medieval fragments are set into the vestry's internal walls. The aisle windows are two-light examples of the 19th century. The north aisle has an old moulded parapet similar to the porch. The projecting gabled Craster Chapel has a large stepped buttress on the east and a renewed two-light north window. The 19th-century clerestory has trefoiled ogee-headed lights; the east gable is coped on moulded kneelers with a ring cross finial.

The three-bay chancel has a south wall showing a chamfered plinth and set-back at sill level, stepped buttresses between bays, and a central buttress extended westward to hold a cinquefoil-headed priest's door; its two-light windows vary in detail. The five-light east window is flanked by gabled angel buttresses, beneath a coped gable with ring cross finial. The north wall has one two-light window, and there is a pent-roofed vestry to the east.

Interior

The tower arch is double-chamfered with a chamfered hoodmould. Above the arch are traces of a blocked door and weathering of a low-pitched late medieval roof. The base of the tower has a pointed vault on three chamfered ribs, pierced by a 19th-century iron spiral stair. The vault ribs cut the rear arches of blocked early Norman windows in the side walls.

The nave arcades are composed of pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals; the eastern responds have foliage carving. Carved broach stops mark the outer order chamfer; the hoodmoulds have large nutmeg ornament, partly re-cut, with carved stops. The east wall of the south aisle shows three brackets, two with carved heads, and a rebated aumbry. The east window of the north aisle is flanked by round- and ogee-arched piscinae with cusped recesses above, possibly re-set. A double-chamfered segmental-pointed arch leads to the Craster Chapel, which has a rebated aumbry on the east.

The chancel arch is 19th-century double-chamfered with dogtooth, resting on 13th-century carved corbels, and stands under weathering of a steeply-pitched 13th-century nave roof; a large blocked window sits in the gable. The chancel is banded in pink and yellow stone. The piscina and credence recesses have trefoiled arches; an adjacent window sill was lowered to hold a wooden sedile.

The nave roof is 19th-century scissor-braced on stone corbels; the aisles retain plain late medieval roofs. The chancel roof is an elaborate collar-beam structure. The sanctuary is tiled with wrought-iron Gothic altar rails and a carved stone reredos. The pulpit, carved in 1896, is ornate. The chancel glass dates to 1884 by Kempe; the east window depicts Northumbrian Saints, with side windows showing Evangelists, Patriarchs, Prophets, and Fathers of the Latin Church. The font is a carved 19th-century example in 13th-century style. Old Craster hatchments hang over the arch to the Craster Chapel and under the tower.

Monuments include 18th-century ledger slabs in the chancel. At the west end of the south aisle wall are tablets to Mrs Grace Edwards, died 1696; Anthony Wilson, a Custom Officer at Craster, died 1718; and Joseph Wood, Major of the Northumberland militia, died 1810. At the west end of the north aisle wall are tablets to Viscount Grey of Fallodon, died 1933, and other 19th and early 20th-century members of the family.