Former Church Of Holy Trinity Approximately 70 Metres East Of Ettington Park Hotel

A partly ruined 13th-century church standing approximately 70 metres east of Ettington Park Hotel on Shipston Road, Alderminster. The building is shown on Ordnance Survey maps as St. Nicholas Church ruins.

The church is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with some ironstone and red sandstone ashlar, featuring ashlar dressings and a graduated stone slate roof to the transept. The surviving elements include a west tower, north arcade and west wall of the north aisle, the south walls of the nave and chancel, and the south transept with an east chapel.

The south transept and chapel were restored around 1825 for use as a mortuary chapel for the Shirley family.

The north arcade is 14th-century work comprising three bays with hexagonal piers topped by moulded capitals, one incorporating heads, and double-chamfered arches. Two small two-light straight-headed clerestory windows feature Perpendicular tracery. At the east end is a pier with a worn piscina recess and springers to the north transept arch, with a very worn tablet to the south side probably recording restoration work and a raking buttress to the east end.

The west wall of the lost lean-to north aisle has a diagonal buttress and a four-light window with 17th-century straight mullions. The south wall of the chancel is of sandstone ashlar and includes, from east to west, a two-light straight-headed window with Perpendicular tracery, an offset buttress, a window with Y-tracery, a Tudor-headed entrance, and another two-light straight-headed window, with two sanctuary steps to the north.

The transept features coped gables with a bellcote to the north and a gable cross to the south. The chapel has a plinth and a restored three-light east window dated 1881 sitting on a sill course. Its north side contains a moulded arch with 19th-century infill including an entrance with moulding and a four-centred head, together with two cusped spherical-triangle windows and three moulded corbels above. The south gable end has diagonal buttresses and a three-light traceried window on a sill course. Two large offset buttresses to the west wall include a lancet to the north. The south wall of the nave contains a blocked three-light straight-headed window to the west of the transept, a two-light clerestory window above, the sill and jamb of another window, and further west an entrance with a corbel above to the north side.

The three-stage tower has a strip buttress to the lower stage of each side and string courses, with an offset stair turret featuring a corbel table clasps the south-west angle. The top stage contains circa 1200 two-light round-headed bell openings with cusped lattice infill. A restored crenellated parapet with angle pinnacles (two bearing wind vanes) crowns the tower, topped with a top cornice. The south face has a narrow light to the buttress; the west face has a round-headed double-chamfered light to the lower stage and a narrow window with a sash to the middle stage. The east face features a tower arch of three orders (the inner order on corbels), an impost band, and a hood, with an opening showing a balustrade and three former roof lines to the middle stage.

Internally, the tower contains corbels with shields and an entrance to the stair turret with a plank door and round-headed light above, along with deep splays to the windows. A plaque commemorates the restoration of 1972–4, and another commemorates the Underhill family, placed by American members descended from an emigrant of 1630. The upper chamber houses a terracotta panel depicting The Deposition by Agostino Corlini (1725) and wall panelling.

The transept displays arch-braced roof trusses, formerly with a panelled ceiling by Rickman. The chapel retains shafts with foliate capitals to the east window.

Fittings include early 19th-century stalls by Rickman with cast-iron panels, and later encaustic tiles to the chapel.

The church contains numerous monuments and wall tablets commemorating members of the Shirley and Underhill families. These include: Anthony Underhill (d.1587), a painted panel with verse; Frances Freckleton (d.1633), with an effigy on a chest under a canopy borne by Corinthian columns; and a major monument to the Earl Ferrers (d.1775) and Countess Ferrers by JF Moore, comprising a veined marble plinth supporting a red and white marble sarcophagus with feet and an oval inscription panel, a reclining figure of George Shirley against a grey marble stele with armorial bearing over a white cornice, and flanking figures of the Earl and Countess. A plaque records that this monument was originally intended for the church at Staunton Harold, Leicestershire, but was placed here by George Shirley when permission was refused by the Earl Ferrers.

Stained glass in the transept and chapel was commissioned from Evie Hone in 1948–9, replacing glass from Winchester College which was subsequently returned there. The north aisle west window is also by Hone.

The site is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.