Church Of The Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a building of group value, dating from the 12th century, with additions and alterations made in the 13th, 15th and 19th centuries. It stands in the parish of Tugford.

The church is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a plain-tile roof with decorative ridge tiles and ashlar coped gables. The overall plan comprises a chancel, a nave with a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel has two lancet windows in its east wall. The north wall has a restored pointed window with twin cusped lancet lights and trefoil tracery, and a single lancet to the right. The south wall features a flat-headed window with triple cusped lancet tracery, a lancet to the left, and a pointed arched doorway to the left. A Sheila-na-gig is set below the eaves.

The nave's north wall has three buttresses with ovolo-chamfered twin cusped lancet windows between. The south wall has three buttresses, with a window to the right and far left, featuring restored ovolo-chamfered twin cusped lights with a quatrefoil above. The south doorway is round-arched and of Norman design, incorporating three orders of shafts with carved capitals of volutes and foliage, hollow chamfered abaci, a carved decorative beakhead arch, a looped middle ring, a zigzag outer ring, and a pellet and zigzag decorated hoodmould. A late 19th-century rebuilt porch stands to the south.

The two-stage west tower has a battered plinth and roll mould, with two string courses at the upper stage, incorporating gargoyles. Stepped buttresses from the former west wall of the nave are incorporated into the tower walls, and there are flat-headed lancets on three faces at the lower stage. Bell openings are present on each face at the upper stage, with pointed arched openings. A round-headed arched opening faces north, and two square-headed openings face east. The tower is topped with a battlemented parapet and carved corner pinnacles.

Inside, the nave is plastered, while the chancel has exposed stone. A 19th-century scissor-truss roof covers the chancel. An aumbry is set into the north wall, and a piscina into the south wall, both set beneath a reused pointed arched head. A restored pointed chancel arch is also present. The nave has a restored three-bay single-purlin roof with three arch-braced collar and tie beam trusses and three arch-braced collar intermediate trusses. A 14th-century tomb recess with a shallow pointed arch is located on the south wall. A round-headed lancet window at high level, pre-dating the tower, is seen in the west wall, along with a 15th-century tower doorway with a stepped segmental arch.

The interior also contains simple box pews, mostly with 17th-century doors fixed to 16th-century bench ends having ovolo-moulded caps; one includes a small flat reading desk dated 1707. A pair of Jacobean seats with carved canopies and armorial bearings of eight quarters are set against the south wall. A Norman font, said to be from the 12th century and in the Herefordshire school of carving, is also present. Simple 17th- to 18th-century communion rails with turned balusters complete the interior features.