Church Of St Paul

The Church of St Paul is a church built between 1822 and 1823 by J. Russell for the Commissioners for Building Churches. A chancel was added in 1897 by G.B. Vialls. The church is constructed of Flemish bond brick with stone dressings, and has a graduated slate roof with deep plastered eaves and pediment gables featuring widely-spaced modillions. The chancel has a blue brick plinth and stone dressings, along with ridge tile cresting and a stone-coped gable parapet with moulded kneelers and a finial. The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, and east vestries.

The architectural style is simple classical, with a Gothic Revival chancel. The nave has four bays, and the chancel has three. The chancel's east window is a three-light design with bar tracery, a hood mould with head stops, and a small lancet opening above. A break in the chancel roof creates a pediment above the nave, incorporating triangular sunk panels and a louvred round-arched opening with a projecting surround. Round-arched openings with stone sills are spaced across the church, set within blank arches. The two-light windows have painted wood tracery in a 'Venetian' style, with round-arched lights and a circle, and sunk panels in the brickwork below. These windows have two transoms, with a stone band at the springing level. A north-east vestry of two bays has a four-panelled door with a traceried fanlight and a blocked window; the south-east vestry of one bay features a part-glazed round-arched door with a sunk panel above. Each vestry also has a window with one transom, a moulded brick cornice, and an embattled parapet. The west front of the church is characterised by blind arches. The three-stage tower cuts into the nave pediment and features stone string courses. It has round-arched, flush four-panelled double-leaf doors, blind openings on its return sides (largely obscured by a lean-to addition to the north), and louvred openings on the second stage. The third stage includes slightly projecting angle piers with plain stone capitals and round openings with stone frames, displaying clock faces to the north and south, and pierced painted infill to the west. A moulded stone cornice and balustrade completes the tower.

Inside, the church is plastered. The spacious nave has a coved and panelled ceiling with flat, moulded ribs. It contains a west gallery with a painted fielded panelled front and curved ends, supported by chamfered posts. The chancel arch, dating from 1897, is a chamfered stone design with a Tudor style and a hood mould with foliage stops. The chancel roof is a three-bay king post roof. Original fittings include late 19th-century pews, altar rails, and an organ case. There is also a font from 1883, an octagonal carved wood pulpit dated 1906, a late 19th/early 20th-century reredos, and stained glass in the early 20th-century east window.