Church Of St Paul

The Church of St Paul is a parish church dating from 1872-4, designed by Giles & Brookhouse in the style of the mid-13th century. It is constructed of coursed, squared rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, and has steeply pitched Welsh slate roofs with stone coped gables and gableted kneelers.

The church consists of a nave with aisles, a southwest steeple, a chancel, and a south vestry. The tower is of two stages, with angle buttresses. The south side features a window of two cusped lancet lights with a quatrefoil above, set within a hoodmould with foliage stops. Above this is a circular quatrefoil window with a similar hoodmould, followed by paired lancet bell openings with trefoil tracery and a hoodmould. The bell stage has nook-shafts with foliage capitals, and is surmounted by an ashlar broach spire with tall and smaller lucarnes, and gargoyles at the corners.

A gabled south porch has a doorway with shafts and moulded capitals, the arch having a filleted roll and a hollow moulding, beneath a hoodmould with naturalistic foliage stops. Plank doors are fitted with elaborate iron hinges. The south aisle has three buttresses and three groups of tripartite lancet windows. The south vestry has steps leading to a doorway with a Caernarvon arch and a trefoiled lancet, with a similar lancet to the east. The chancel south side has a single lancet with tracery of a quatrefoil over a trefoil. The east wall has angle buttresses and a three-light window with bar tracery. A north side lancet mirrors the south. The organ chamber has a trefoiled lancet to the east and a pair of trefoiled lancets with an encircled quatrefoil to the north. The north aisle has five buttresses and three groups of triple lancets, together with a pair of lancets in the westernmost bay. The west window is of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over. The nave west window is of 4-lights with three quatrefoils in circles.

Internally, the north arcade comprises four bays, and the south arcade has three bays. The piers are circular, with moulded capitals and double chamfered arches constructed from alternating contrasting coloured blocks of stone. The arches are finished with a hoodmould and foliage stops. A small additional bay to the west of the south arcade, beneath the tower, has a corresponding arch into the aisle. The chancel arch has a chamfered outer order and a moulded inner order, the latter resting on trefoiled shafts supported by angel corbels. Aisle windows have detached shafts internally. The nave is roofed with boarded panels, incorporating alternate A-trusses and curved trusses on hammer beams. The chancel has a canted and panelled roof. A font is octagonal, and is constructed from sandstone, Hoptonwood stone, and alabaster, featuring quatrefoil motifs.