Church Of Holy Trinity And Wall Attached To South East

The Church of Holy Trinity began as the priory church of an Alien Benedictine Abbey dependent on Marmoutier in France and now serves as the parish church. The wall attached to the south-east corner comprises the lower courses of the south wall of the choir and chancel of the original church, and now forms the footings of the wall on the south side of the garden of Holy Trinity Rectory at No. 81 Micklegate.

Architectural Development

The church retains early 12th-century crossing piers, the north end of the west front, and the attached wall incorporating a reconstructed mid 14th-century window. The five-bay nave dates from around 1180 with a fragment of the triforium surviving, whilst the nave arcades are early 13th century. The tower was built in 1453, with its lower stage formed from the remains of the north aisle.

Following the Dissolution in 1536, the church was remodelled. The nave was re-roofed using 15th-century timbers and an embattled parapet was added. In 1850 the south aisle was rebuilt during a restoration by JB and W Atkinson. Fisher and Hepper rebuilt the chancel and vestry in 1886–7. Between 1902 and 1905, C Hodgson Fowler undertook extensive reconstruction: the west front was rebuilt retaining parts of the early 13th-century west door, the west bay of the nave was re-roofed, and a north porch was added incorporating parts of the early 13th-century north doorway.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of dressed sandy limestone and magnesian limestone with some gritstone. The chancel is of rockfaced sandstone, the west end of limestone ashlar, and the south aisle of dark red brick in English bond. Roofs are covered in tile and slate. The rectory garden wall is of red brick built above lower courses of sandy limestone.

Plan

The building comprises a two-and-a-half bay chancel, five-bay nave with south aisle, north porch, and north-west tower, with the Chapel of St Nicholas occupying the ground stage of the tower.

Exterior Description

The buttressed east end stands on a chamfered plinth. The east window has five lights with panel tracery beneath a two-centred head, with moulded sill string and hoodmould. A coped gable carries a gable cross. The chancel's north side has two three-light windows with panel tracery in two-centred heads above a moulded sill string. The surviving north-west pier of the early 12th-century crossing, with its half-cylindrical north respond, divides the chancel from the nave. The chancel's south side is obscured by adjacent buildings.

The former nave north arcade has been blocked and filled with three 19th-century three-light windows—two with reticulated tracery and one left unfinished. A moulded eaves string runs beneath the embattled parapet. The two-storey buttressed porch, built on the footings of the former north aisle, incorporates part of the original north door. The doorway arch is two-centred and of three orders. The inner order is original and features twin filleted shafts with moulded capitals and bases separated by a band of continuous nailhead moulding. The outer orders have shafts with moulded capitals (one original on the east side) and bases (one original on the west side), separated by bands of coarse dogtooth moulding. A restored 15th-century panel-traceried door with inset wicket fills the opening. Above is a lancet window with a floral stopped hoodmould. The porch's east return contains a square-headed window of three lights with cusped ogee heads.

In the west bay of the south aisle is a two-centred window of two lights with cusped tracery. Above this is a reconstructed portion of the triforium arcade. The clerestory has three dormer windows with diamond lattice glazing.

The tower rises in five stages with an embattled parapet and offset angle buttresses, the north-east one standing on a chamfered plinth. The north-east and north-west buttresses are stop-chamfered on the two lowest stages. The ground stage incorporates part of the original north aisle wall on a chamfered plinth, with a chamfered lancet window beneath a two-centred arch on jamb shafts featuring roll necking and nailhead moulded capitals. The window has a hoodmould on floral stops and a double chamfered sill string. On the north, east and west faces, the belfry stage has chamfered round-headed louvred openings recessed beneath round arches on jamb shafts with roll necking and moulded capitals. A moulded string marks the belfry level.

The buttressed west end features pilasters, the north one being original and retaining vestigial twin gabled niches on its west face and a similar niche with a trefoiled head and nailhead moulded capitals on its north face. The south buttress reproduces these features. The north jamb of the west door is original. The two-centred doorway arch has four orders: the inner consists of paired filleted shafts, the outer are plain with two detached orders featuring annulets and one attached order, all with moulded capitals and bases. Double doors are fitted with scrolled C-hinges and wrought-ironwork. On either side are arcades of two pointed arches on side shafts, corbelled in the centre. A continuous dogtooth hoodmould runs over both arcades and the door. Above is an arcaded window of three pointed lights, stepped over the door, on filleted shafts with moulded capitals and a corbelled hoodmould. A moulded string runs to the eaves beneath the embattled parapet with gable cross.

One to two courses of the former south wall of the choir and chancel are visible in the Rectory garden beneath later brick courses. These incorporate a reconstructed window of four cusped pointed lights beneath curvilinear mouchette tracery, set in a chamfered surround with a two-centred head and hollow chamfered mullions.

Interior

The two-centred chancel arch has three orders springing from foliate corbels attached to the former crossing piers. The piers are square in plan with attached shafts now embedded in later construction.

The north and south arcades each have five bays. The north arcade is blocked and forms the nave's north wall. Both arcades feature two-centred arches of three chamfered orders resting on octagonal piers and responds with roll necking, hollow chamfered capitals and abaci, and waterhold bases (some renewed). On the south-east face of the first pier of the north arcade is an escutcheon carved with the arms of Micklethwait. Above each pier of both arcades is an attached triple shaft with continuous annulet moulding, representing the former lower half of vaulting shafts.

At the west end of the nave on the north side, one bay of the original triforium survives, featuring a triple arched arcade of blind lancets with chamfered heads on shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The segment-arched west door has slender jamb shafts with foliate capitals beneath a corbelled hoodmould. The triple lancet west window stands on shafts with moulded capitals separated by bands of continuous dogtooth moulding beneath a hoodmould. The Chapel of St Nicholas on the tower ground stage has lancets in the north and west walls.

Roofs

The chancel has a 19th-century hammer-beam roof. The nave roof comprises seven bays of collar trusses with kerb principals and slightly cambered tiebeams. The two eastern trusses have moulded ties, whilst the seventh has a demi-angel boss.

Fittings

At the west end of the nave stands a possibly 18th-century octagonal font bowl on a 19th-century shaft and 15th-century base, with a scrolled cover dated 1717 around the upper rim and 1794 around the lower. At the east end of the south aisle is a disused octagonal font bowl. In the outer porch to the east of the door is a reset stoup in a 19th-century surround. At the west end of the south aisle is a medieval altar slab with incised crosses.

Amongst the coffin lids, the porch contains a 13th-century lid with a foliated cross. Behind the pulpit is a stone lid reused in the 17th century with a brass inscribed to Alderman Micklethwait who died in 1632.

Numerous fragments of carved stone are reset throughout the church. In the Chapel of St Nicholas are an 11th-century dragon, a waterleaf capital, the upper part of a double coped graveslab, and fragments with black letter inscriptions. On the west wall of the inner porch is a mid 12th-century acanthus capital. Other carved and moulded fragments found on the site over time are kept loose in the church. The reredos is by G Hodgson Fowler. A hatchment dated 1832 hangs on the wall of the south aisle.

Stained Glass

The east and west windows are by Kempe, as are the west window in the nave and the window in the Chapel of St Nicholas.

Monuments

The monuments include a marble wall monument on the south-west crossing pier to Dr John Burton, who died in 1771, physician and author, and his wife Mary. It features a parchment scroll draped over a Gothic-traceried tablet, weighted down by the two volumes of his Monasticon Eboracensis and an urn. Dr Burton served as the model for Dr Slop in Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy.