Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity

Parish church originally constructed around 1150, with significant additions and alterations spanning the 13th, 15th, 16th, and 18th centuries, plus later work around 1914. Built from coursed ironstone and limestone rubble with limestone ashlar dressing, red brick, and slate, plain tile and lead roofs. The building comprises a bell turret, nave with north aisle, south porch, rectangular chancel with north vestry.

The west front dates to the early 13th century with a plinth and angle buttresses in three stages flanked by a central buttress of five stages. A moulded string course runs beneath the bell turret, which has two round-headed openings beneath a coped gable. Fragmentary 12th-century corbelling survives on the north and south returns of the flanking gables.

The 14th-century north aisle has a red brick band added around 1914 running along the top, with 14th-century coping reset above it and a damaged finial on the west corner. A single early 20th-century pointed window with two cusped lights and continuous mullion faces west. To the east is a 15th-century window of two lights with trefoil heads under a flattened triangular head, followed by a 20th-century round-headed window with two cusped lights and continuous mullion. A 20th-century brick chimney stands above. The 15th-century ironstone clerestorey has quoins and two rectangular windows, each of two trefoiled lights with hood moulds. Limestone moulded eaves and two large gargoyles support a coped parapet.

The north vestry, built around 1914 but reusing 15th-century fragments of limestone and ironstone, features moulded eaves, battlements and an east window of three cusped and pointed lights.

The chancel is constructed of late 18th-century brick with ashlar quoins and decorated eaves. A blocked early 13th-century lancet has been reset in the south wall. The east end is of coursed limestone with a 1918 window of three lights with reticulated tracery and hood mould, coped gable above with finial. The south side has coursed limestone plinth with late 18th-century red brick and various reset windows: to the east a 13th-century lancet with small head at the apex, a small 13th-century pointed chamfered doorway, and a 12th-century round-headed window to the west of that.

The nave has a higher limestone and ironstone plinth with 18th-century brick above. Features include a 16th-century oval ashlar window reset, and a 13th-century two-light window with lozenge above. Further west is an early 14th-century reset window of three lights with reticulated tracery. Moulded eaves with a large gargoyle and ashlar parapet complete this elevation.

The 15th-century ironstone porch has limestone bands and moulded plinth with a small irregular opening in the east wall. Diagonal buttresses of two stages support the structure. The rectangular-headed south doorway has a four-centred arch beneath, heavy hood mould and plain moulded jambs. Above is a small long opening with trefoiled head, with a pronounced moulded string course following the line of the gable. The porch features battlements, plain gable rising above flanked by ornate pinnacles with a central ornate finial. Benches flank the porch interior and a corbel appears in the east wall.

Centrally positioned is a 12th-century round-headed doorway with simple roll mouldings, single columnar jambs with scalloped capitals and moulded abaci carved with pairs of tiny heads. A gargoyle sits above the porch roof. Single light 20th-century rectangular windows with cusping appear to the west of the porch, with a two-light rectangular version below also with cusping and hood mould.

The interior contains a mid-12th-century north arcade of four bays with round piers and columnar responds featuring plain moulded capitals. Double-chamfered round arches carry chipstar decoration and small rosettes in the spandrels. A round chancel arch of around 1914 has plain rectangular jambs. A 19th-century wood ceiling covers the nave, with a 20th-century roof in the chancel. A 20th-century round-headed doorway leads to the north vestry.

Furnishings include an 18th-century altar table, a highly carved 17th-century chair, a 17th-century pulpit of two decorated panels with daisyheads and geometrical patterning, and a remnant of plain 17th-century wainscotting on the south wall by the pulpit. An early 20th-century lectern incorporates a panel from a 15th-century screen with ornate finial and tracery. Early 20th-century pews fill the nave. A 17th-century gallery, heavily restored in the 20th century, features geometrical and foliage patterns with daisyheads. A late 15th-century octagonal font has panels containing heads, flowers and a shield on an octagonal support with deeply cut foliage in small panels. Two fragments stand near the font: one of 12th-century chevron, the other of 11th-century plaited cable.

Monuments are extensive. The south side of the chancel holds an ornate marble monument to Thomas and Caroline Williamson dated 1690, with a similar one on the north side to Thomas Williamson dated 1688. The south side has a plaque of 1656 to Robert Clarke, and on the north side an ornate black and white monument to Lady Welby, died 1826, with an almost illegible grey marble monument with gold paint and cherub dated 1669 nearby. Two further monuments appear on the north side of the nave: to the east a grey and white marble monument to Mary Williamson died 1763, and to the west a black and white marble monument to Sir William Earl Welby died 1815. Above the vestry door is a large 19th-century coat of arms of Coade stone.

The poet George Crabbe served as rector here from 1790 to 1814.