Church Of The Holy Trinity And Holy Mary The Virgin

The Church of the Holy Trinity and Holy Mary the Virgin is a parish church in Old Clee, Grimsby, notable for its Saxon and Norman work.

The west tower is 11th-century Saxo-Norman with a 14th-15th century parapet. The nave arcades date to approximately 1170-90, while the crossing, transepts and chancel are dated 1192. The church was reseated in 1858 and underwent external restoration in 1878 by Joseph Fowler of Louth, which included new north and south transept walls, chancel, porch and crossing tower. Further restorations took place from 1935-7 by Robert Godfrey, involving wall repairs and underpinning.

The building is constructed from random cobble, rubble and squared limestone in the early sections of the west tower and aisles, with ashlar parapets. The chancel is built of limestone and ironstone ashlar. The porch, transepts and crossing tower are constructed in rock-faced ashlar. The chancel has a lead roof, with slate roofs elsewhere.

The church is cruciform in plan, comprising a 2-bay chancel with north vestry, a 3-bay aisled nave with single-bay transepts, a south porch and west tower.

The exterior features a chamfered plinth, angle buttresses and buttresses between bays, and coped gables with finials throughout, except for the tower. The chancel has single lancets to the east bay and twin needle lancets to the west bay on its north and south sides. A triple east lancet with hoodmould is present. The vestry has a pointed arched door and a 2-light window.

The transepts have a sill string course. The north and south sides feature pairs of lancets beneath linked hoodmoulds and vesica windows above with continuous hoodmoulds. The north transept has twin needle lancets to the east side and a single lancet to the west side. The south transept has a single needle lancet to the east side. The low 2-stage crossing tower has an upper stage with shafts to the angles, a pair of lancets to each side, a string course, gargoyles to the angles, and a plain parapet.

The north aisle has restored 2-light square-headed windows with reticulated tracery, a small restored pointed door with hoodmould, and a round-headed west window. The south aisle features 2 restored 3-light south windows and a single 2-light west window, all triangular-headed with trefoiled lights and shafted mullions.

The south porch has a pointed wave-moulded outer arch with continuous hoodmould and a vesica window above with a niche and carved base. Single pointed windows are present to the east and west sides, with a pointed wave-moulded inner arch and an early door.

The 2-stage west tower has a plain plinth. The lower stage is cobble-built with ironstone quoins to the lower part, featuring late 20th-century pointing, and ironstone with bands of roughly-coursed squared limestone above. A round-headed west door has massive quoins and voussoirs, chamfered imposts and an arch of 2 orders, the inner order slightly recessed and the outer order with a plain hoodmould. Above are single keyhole windows to each side, with that to the south altered by late 20th-century cement rendering. An irregular series of corbels appears to the south side, and an eaves dripmould to the north side. A string course is present. The stepped-in upper stage has twin round-arched belfry openings with mid-wall shafts with cushion capitals, long-and-short quoins, chamfered impost blocks and monolithic heads. A string course with gargoyles and an embattled parapet with concave-pointed merlons and 8 crocketed pinnacles complete the tower.

The interior features a pointed chancel arch of 2 chamfered and roll-moulded orders on keeled triple-shafted responds. A reset 13th-century double piscina with nook-shafts is present, featuring pointed moulded arches with nailhead moulding and a hoodmould with paterae. An aumbry with dogtooth moulding and a south-east window with nook-shafts, moulded arch and cusped head are also visible. The east window has marble shafts, moulded and dogtoothed arches and hoodmoulds with carved stops. A pointed chamfered vestry door has a hoodmould and carved stops.

The crossing has pointed arches to the transepts, nave and aisles with bold roll-mouldings on triple-shafted responds, some keeled, and those to the south with nailhead between the shafts. Various abaci are present, those to the north with nailhead moulding. A reset medieval piscina is located in the north transept.

The nave north arcade comprises 2 stages. The 2 east bays have round arches of 2 roll-moulded and plain orders on 2 pairs of quadruple-shafted responds with central responds rather than a central pier, square bases, chamfered plinths and scalloped capitals with some carved detail. The later, wider west bay has a round arch of 2 orders with zigzag and lozenge mouldings, on quadruple-shafted responds with scalloped capitals. One shaft has cable moulding, and one abacus has toothed moulding and a long-snouted beast-head label-stop.

The later south arcade has 2 wide bays with round arches of 2 orders featuring a hoodmould, quadruple rolls to the inner order, and filleted, cable, billet and pellet mouldings to the outer order, on a round pier and roll-moulded responds with scalloped capitals and chamfered abaci. The south-east respond has a small inserted pointed-trefoiled niche. The central southern pier bears 3 plaques with Latin inscriptions: one records the dedication of the church by Bishop Hugh of Lincoln (later Saint Hugh) in 1192, and others record the reopening of the church after restorations in 1878 and 1937. The 19th-century roofs are arch-braced to the nave, scissor-braced to the transepts, and barrel-roofed to the chancel with moulded wallplate and carved angels. A Norman tub font with cable-moulded rim and cylindrical base with roll-moulded steps is present.

Fittings include 19th-century wooden pews, pulpit and altar rails.

Monuments include a 15th-century inscribed marble tablet in the south aisle to the Kygger family of nearby Hoole. A 19th-century Gothic-style marble wall-tablet in the chancel commemorates Rev. W Grant-Thorold and others. A cast-iron wall plaque records Cornelius Chapman, Humber Pilot, who died in 1840. A stone tablet of 1819 by Stimson commemorates A Mott, Post Captain, who played a key role in the Nore Mutiny of 1797. A restored painted board from 1874 displays 1793 bellringers' rules. A section of carved medieval cross-shaft is displayed in the porch.