Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity

Parish church of late 11th or 12th century date, restored and partly rebuilt in 1885 by J.P. Pritchard of Darlington at the expense of the fourth Duke of Cleveland. The church is constructed of 12th-century dressed red and grey sandstone with 19th-century grey sandstone ashlar, and has plain tile roofs. The building comprises a nave, chancel, south vestry and organ chamber, and a west tower, with the 19th-century work executed in a late 14th-century Gothic style.

The tower dates to 1885 and is built in three stages with a semi-octagonal stair turret to the north-east. It features chamfered rectangular openings, diagonal buttresses, a high moulded plinth, chamfered set-backs, a moulded string course leading to a coped battlemented parapet, and a weathervane. The belfry openings are louvred 2-light designs with panelled tracery, moulded reveals, and hoodmoulds with carved stops. Diamond-leaded overlight windows to the second stage have trefoil heads and hoodmoulds with carved stops. The west window, possibly a re-set 15th-century example, contains 3 quatrefoil-headed lights with panelled tracery, moulded reveals, and a hoodmould with carved stops.

The nave is 12th-century in origin but was extended to the west and had its eaves raised in 1885. It displays moulded corbels and coped parapeted gable ends with crosses at the apex to the east, and a 19th-century stack to the north-east with a square base, octagonal shaft, and moulded cap. The south side features two square-headed windows to the right, each with 3 trefoil-headed lights, moulded reveals, and returned hoodmoulds with carved stops (the right-hand window is late 14th-century and the left-hand is 19th-century). A round-arched 19th-century south doorway to the left has a 19th-century boarded door. A 17th-century porch, restored circa 1885, has a plinth, moulded corbels, a parapeted gable, and moulded imposts to a round arch with "F B:W/ 1678" inscribed in the central voussoir. The porch contains two 19th-century boarded doors and three 3-light double-chamfered mullion windows of 19th-century date. The north side contains a 12th-century round-arched window to the left and a 19th-century square-headed window to the right with 3 trefoil-headed lights, moulded reveals, and a hoodmould with carved stops. The central doorway features a late 11th-century carved tympanum depicting a dragon, with a 19th-century boarded door.

The chancel is 12th-century but had its eaves raised and north and east walls rebuilt in 1885 (marked by a visible straight joint). It has moulded corbels and a coped parapeted gable end to the east with a cross at the apex. The south side has a 12th-century round-arched window to the right and a 19th-century square-headed window to the left with 3 trefoil-headed lights, moulded reveals, and a hoodmould with carved stops. The east window contains 3 cinquefoil-headed lights with panelled tracery, moulded reveals, and a hoodmould with carved stops.

The vestry and organ chamber form a lean-to addition to the north with moulded corbels and coped parapeted verges. A boarded door opens to the north, with a lancet to the east and steps down to a basement door to the west.

The interior features a 19th-century six-bay nave roof and 2-bay chancel roofs comprising shaped brackets with carved angels and shields, arch-braced collars with billet decorations to the upper edge, pairs of moulded purlins, and a pierced ashlar frieze with billet decoration. A moulded 19th-century tower arch has imposts. The restored 12th-century chancel arch has carved imposts and a hoodmould. A 19th-century moulded arch to the north organ chamber has a hoodmould and carved stops, as does a 19th-century moulded-arched north doorway to the vestry. The east window has a wave-moulded rear arch and reveals.

The fittings are mainly circa 1885 in date and include a wooden reredos with traceried panels, a moulded wooden communion rail with decorative wrought-iron supports, an aumbry in the south wall with a 17th-century door featuring pierced tracery and lozenge decoration, an octagonal wooden pulpit with traceried panels, and an octagonal stone font with trefoil-headed panelled stems and a quatrefoil-panelled bowl. A 18th-century painted royal coat-of-arms is positioned above the tower arch. A brass commemorates John Stainier, Gent, Steward to the Right Honourable Francis Earle of Bradford, who died in 1691, along with other family members, though it was not located at the time of resurvey. A series of 18th- and early 19th-century memorial tables is also present.

Uppington was founded as a chapelry of Wroxeter. The 1885 restoration has also been attributed to S. Pountney Smith. A mid-19th-century font formerly in the church is said to have been removed to the Church of St John the Baptist, Stapleton, in Condover Parish in the late 19th century.