Holy Trinity Church

Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church built in 1863, with extensions around 1920. It was designed by the architect E.G.Paley, with Ellis and Hinchcliffe as the contractors. The church is constructed of coursed rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, features coped gables with circular cross finials, and is roofed with Welsh slate. It is built in the Early English style.

The plan is a rectangular double-pile layout with a central arcade, including a north aisle with a porch, a nave, a chancel with a small Lady Chapel to the north, and an added vestry to the north of the Lady Chapel.

The north porch is single-storied with a steeply-pitched gable and cross finial above a pointed entrance archway with a hoodmould. To the left are three bays with two and three-light windows featuring cusped lights with quatrefoil and sexfoil heads; the bays are defined by shallow stepped buttresses, and there is a corbel table above. The west end has twin gables to the nave and north aisle, with tall windows, each consisting of four cusped lancet lights, with two quatrefoils and a large septfoil to the window head. Small cusped lancets are found in each gable apex, with clasping buttresses to the corners and a stepped buttress at the junction of the two gables. A low, gabled porch is present at the chancel end. The south side wall has five buttresses to the nave and plate traceried windows to the two-bay chancel. A tall three-light window is found in the chancel west gable, featuring cusped heads to the lancets and three quatrefoils to the arch head. Vestry rooms were added extending eastwards from the north aisle.

The interior has plain, painted walls, with earlier ornamentation and wall paintings now covered. A central arcade features foliated heads to the columns. The arcade arches, along with the wide chancel arch, have dogtooth moulding at the arch head. A chancel arch screen has paired cusped lancets to the side bays. Simple altar rails are present in the chancel and Lady Chapel, and the Lady Chapel has an arcaded front with three steeply-pointed arches.

The church was completed in 1863 at a cost of £4000. The original design by Paley included a south aisle and a north tower with a spire above the porch, but this was never realized. This commission falls within Paley’s career during which he worked alone, following the retirement of his partner, Edmund Sharpe.

Holy Trinity Church is of special architectural interest as a little-altered design by the notable architect E.G.Paley, working independently after the retirement of his partner Edmund Sharpe. Although the original design was not fully carried out, the church remains a carefully detailed composition in the Early English style by an architect of national repute.