Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity church is a mid-Victorian town church built in 1870–1 by the architects Smith and Brodrick, designed in the Early English style of the late 13th century. The building was constructed of rock-faced Busca Gill stone with Whitby stone dressings.

The church comprises a four-bay clerestoried nave with lean-to aisles abutting it, a chancel, a northwest steeple, a west porch, and a north vestry. The aisles contain a series of three-light Geometrical windows. The clerestory windows consist of quatrefoils punched through the nave wall. At the west end, below a five-light window, stands a gabled porch. The northwest steeple has a tower of two stages, with the lower stage featuring a north doorway set beneath a gable and the second stage containing tall two-light belfry windows. The tower is crowned by a recessed spire with ribs at the angles and a tier of tall spire lights, terminating in an openwork parapet. The chancel is lower than the nave and has a four-light east Geometrical window with trefoils and quatrefoils in the tracery.

The interior is plastered, whitened, and quite plain with little decoration. The arcades have moulded arches and octagonal piers with moulded capitals. Between the nave and chancel is a moulded arch springing from colonettes standing on corbels, with elaborate stiff-leaf foliage capitals. The nave and chancel roofs are supported on colonettes with stiff-leaf foliage.

Much Victorian furnishing remains in place, including nave seats with square-headed ends to which umbrella holders are attached. A large imposing organ stands on the north side of the chancel, featuring three semi-circular towers of pipes and traceried screening. Cast-iron radiators by Wright Bros of Sheffield, including examples with flowered panels, are present throughout. The church contains extensive stained glass: the east window representing the Resurrection dates to 1913 by H W Bryans, as do three chancel south windows from 1917 and 1921. A south aisle east window of 1875 is by Hardman, another south aisle window (with a death date of 1921) is by Hardman and Co, and a further south aisle window (with a death date of 1917) is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne.

The church was built in 1870–1 by subscription, with substantial funding from the Reverend Y G Lloyd-Graeme of Sewerby House, who also presented the church with a peal of three bells. The total construction cost was £7,000, and the church could accommodate 900 people, all seating being free. It became the centre of a separate parish in 1874. Frederick Stead Brodrick (1847–1927), nephew of the renowned architect Cuthbert Brodrick who designed Leeds Town Hall, partnered with R G Smith (fl 1870–82), surveyor to Hull Council, who became FRIBA in 1871.