Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of The Holy Trinity

Parish church built in 1689 by William Taylor of London at the expense of Thomas, Viscount Weymouth. The building is constructed of red brick with yellow and grey sandstone dressings, beneath a plain tile roof.

The church comprises a six-bay nave and chancel in one, with an additional bay to the west containing a bellcote, and a south porch. It stands on a chamfered dressed red sandstone plinth with a cill string. Battered brick buttresses with rounded stone kneelers support the walls, which are topped by a parapet with stone coping (the top five courses have been rebuilt). The parapeted gable ends include an eastern gable with a flag-pole.

The square wooden bellcote features a shingled lower stage and louvred upper stage with balusters at the corners. It is crowned with a cap bearing a frieze and pedimented gable to each face, topped by a weathervane.

Large round-arched diamond-leaded windows punctuate the building, each with moulded architraves, impost blocks, and keystones carved with angel's heads. The south doorway in the third bay from the west contains a pair of 18th-century doors, each with three moulded panels and a moulded architrave. The south porch has a stone-coped parapeted gable and an entrance with a lugged architrave over chamfered rustication, frieze, and segmental pediment.

The east end features a large diamond-leaded round-arched window with Y-tracery, moulded cill, and a moulded architrave with impost blocks and a projecting dropped keystone carved with an angel's head.

The west front is the most architecturally distinguished. A pair of giant pilasters without entasis, decorated with chamfered rustication, moulded bases, and capitals enriched with egg and dart motifs, support a large open segmental pediment. The centrepiece contains a segmental-headed entrance with a recessed pair of doors, each with three moulded panels. The moulded architrave frames carved winged angels in the lugs flanking a projecting dropped keystone carved with an angel. A carved frieze with scrolled ends displays skulls, cross bones, hour glasses, and swags, beneath a moulded cornice.

A central first-floor diamond-leaded two-light round-arched window has a moulded cill and is flanked by panelled pilasters with carved foliage drops and egg and dart enriched cornices. The chamfered rusticated voussoirs and spandrels frame a dropped keystone with a carved angel's head and moulded cornice. Above, a clock sits in the tympanum of the pediment, with carved spandrels and a moulded architrave bearing carved paterae in the lugs. Flanking diamond-leaded windows on each floor have moulded cills and architraves, with carved angel heads to the first-floor keystones and carved grotesques to the ground-floor keystones. Lead downpipes with rainwater heads are located on the second, fourth, and sixth buttresses from the east.

Interior

The interior retains many late 17th-century fixtures and fittings. The roof is of 17th-century date with quasi arch-braced collar trusses, actually assembled from separately-pegged parts, and pairs of purlins spanning six and a half bays.

A west gallery occupies three bays, with a closed ground floor featuring a pair of three-panelled doors. The frieze and moulded cornice of the balustrade have a moulded handrail; the centre bay projects slightly with pendant finials and square standards with panelled sides, supported by a pair of wooden Tuscan columns beneath a moulded beam.

The sanctuary features dado panelling with carved foliage decoration. A reredos consisting of a pair of large bolection-moulded panels flanks the east window, each bearing a frieze with carved scroll decoration and segmental pediment.

A 17th-century communion table stands before the reredos, with communion rails featuring turned balusters, moulded base and handrail, and a pair of central gates. A low chancel screen, possibly cut down, ramps up to gate posts carved with dragons in the spandrels, with a pair of central gates, each having two raised and fielded panels and ramping up to posts carved with foliage in the spandrels.

A fine hexagonal wooden pulpit occupies the nave. Two square panels appear on each face with a carved foliage band between and frieze above. The back board is bolection-moulded and panelled. A large tester above features an acanthus-decorated panelled soffit, an entablature with carved foliage that breaks forward at the corners, and an ogee cap crowned with a globe finial.

An octagonal painted stone font with a square base stands in the church. The octagonal stem is decorated with acanthus carving, and the gadrooned bowl has an uncarved top.

The church contains an organ of 1884 and pews dating to around 1870.

Seven maidens' garlands are displayed at the west end, placed in the church during the 18th century (dated 1736 to 1794). These were created for the funerals of young girls and were placed on their coffins.

Historical Development

The interior underwent significant alterations in 1865, when the chancel floor was raised to its present level (two steps up), the family pew was dismantled (parts possibly surviving as a screen in Minsterley Hall), and the present choir stalls were created from old materials. Further alterations were made in 1870 when the church was reseated and the pulpit was probably relocated to its current position on a new base.

In 1688, contracts were executed with Thomas Hudson of Shrewsbury for masonry and brickwork, and with Joseph Meatcham of Shrewsbury for woodwork, the gallery, and pews. The church was consecrated in 1689. At the time of his commission, William Taylor was working at Longleat in Wiltshire. The Thynnes, who owned Minsterley Hall at this period, may have been responsible for the selection of the architect.

Holy Trinity represents a complete example of a church built when local craftsmen were beginning to assimilate the new Baroque motifs.