Church Of The Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a large parish church with a medieval plan and much of its interior retaining medieval character. It was extensively restored and partly rebuilt in the 19th century, with the chancel dating from 1862 and the west tower and a thorough restoration from 1870. The church comprises a west tower, a nave with two aisles, a clerestory, transepts, and a chancel. The external material is pink granite rubble with white sandstone dressings, with the south porch and clerestory faced in sandstone.

The west tower has two main stages, with buttresses and thin corner pinnacles above a decorative frieze. Two-light openings with heavy tracery are found in the bell-chamber, along with a large clock on the south face. A large south porch features an embattled parapet and gargoyles. The church has a parapet throughout, with buttresses incorporating white stone dressings and stone copings to gabled and trefoiled tops. The windows have varied tracery styles, a perpendicular style to the clerestory, and a late decorated style to the aisle windows, all with hoodmoulds terminating in large foliate corbels.

The chancel’s decorative scheme is distinct, with buttresses featuring small, projecting grotesque carvings, a decorative frieze below the parapet, and a later decorated window tracery pattern.

Inside, the nave arcade consists of four bays with double-chamfered arches on round piers, dating from the late 13th century. The easternmost piers have four shafts, relating to the 14th-century construction of the transepts (which are of 19th-century origin). The clerestory and nave roof are of perpendicular style, featuring low-pitched cambered trusses with traceried panels, angel brackets, and gilded bosses. The chancel contains fine carved choir stalls from 1918, turned 17th-century altar rails, and an ornate stone reredos representing the Last Supper, including sedilia dating from 1884. The chancel roof is a plain, low-pitched timber structure with decorated cambered trusses and a cornice. A memorial window by Powell and Co. (1890) commemorates various 17th-century local figures. A stained-glass window in the south aisle dates from 1929. A memorial to Theophilus Cave, who died in 1656, is in a mannerist style with a well-turned epigram. In the south transept is a memorial to Martha Utber, dating from 1745, depicting a kneeling female figure at a prie-dieu within a surround of pilasters, a broken pediment, and arms.