Holy Trinity Church

326/0/10065 SPRING STREET 23-OCT-04 Holy Trinity Church

II Anglican church. 1863, extended c.1920. Designed by E.G.Paley, architect;contractor Ellis and Hinchcliffe. Coursed rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, coped gables with circular cross finials and Welsh slate roof coverings. Early English style.

PLAN: Rectangular double-pile plan with central arcade, and comprising north aisle porch, north aisle nave, chancel with lady chapel to north side and added vestry to its north.

EXTERIOR: Single storeyed north porch with steeply-pitched gable and cross finial above pointed entrance archway below hoodmould. 3 bays to left and single bay to right with 2 and 3 light windows, the cusped lights with quatrefoil or sexfoil heads. The bays are delineated by shallow stepped buttresses. Corbel table above. West end with twin gables to nave and north aisle with tall windows each of 4 cusped lancet lights each with 2 quatrefoils and a large septfoil to the window head. Small cusped lancets to each gable apex. Clasping buttresses to corners and a stepped buttess at the junction of the 2 gables. Low, gabled porch to chancel end. South side wall with 5 buttresses to nave and plate traceried windows to 2-bay chancel. Tall 3-light window to chancel west gable with cusped heads to lancets and 3 quatrefoils to arch head. Vestry rooms addition extends eastwards from north aisle.

INTERIOR: Plain painted interior walls throughout, the earlier ornamentation and wall paintings now covered. Central arcade with foliated heads to columns. Arcade arches and wide chancel arch with dogtooth moulding at arch head. Chancel arch screen with paired cusped lancets to side bays. Simple altar rails to chancel and Lady Chapel. Arcaded front to Lady Chapel with 3 steeply-pointed arches.

HISTORY: The church was completed in 1863 at a cost of £4000. Paley's original design had included a south aisle and a north tower with spire above the porch. This commission dates to the period of Paley's career when he was working alone, following the retirement of his aprtner Sharpe.

Holy Trinity Church is of special architectural interest as a little-altered design by the notable architect E.G.Paley, working alone after the retirement of his partner Edmund Sharpe. Although the original design was never completed, the church remains a very assured and carefully detailed composition in the Early English style by an architect of national repute.