Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity, Cambridge

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a cruciform medieval parish church dating from the 14th to 15th centuries, with significant restoration work undertaken by G. F. Bodley in 1885 and a new spire added in 1901.

The building comprises a chancel with a north organ chamber, a nave with large north and south transepts, north and south aisles (the south aisle being slightly longer than the nave), a west tower set within the west bay of the nave, a north porch, and a south vestry. The lower part of the west wall is faced with flint pebbles, while the brick chancel, organ chamber, and upper part of the tower are clad in roughly dressed 19th-century ashlar. The remainder is rendered in Roman cement. All roofs are lead.

The exterior is notable for the contrast between the smooth rendered body of the church and the roughly dressed 19th-century stone facing of the east end and upper tower. Embattled parapets run throughout. The windows are largely Perpendicular in style with vertical tracery, except for the chancel north and south walls, which have 19th-century Decorated windows, and the aisles, which feature mainly late 14th-century Decorated windows with flowing tracery. The late 15th-century transept windows are exceptionally large and form a distinctive feature. Unusually for a parish church, the clerestory continues around the transepts.

The west end is tightly hemmed in by adjacent buildings. The lower part of the 14th-century west tower incorporates the west wall of a late 12th-century church and contains a Decorated window. Above the roofline, the tower has been refaced in rough masonry. The tall, slim spire of 1901 rises above a plain parapet in a schematic Decorated style with unornamented gabled lucarnes.

The interior is lofty and light, fully plastered and painted, creating architectural uniformity despite its complex phasing. The western three bays of the north and south nave arcades date from the 14th century and feature wave-moulded orders on complex, shafted piers. The wide piers between the two western bays on each side support half-arches to the tower, indicating contemporary construction. The east, north, and south tower arches are similar to the nave arcades. The wide arches to the north and south transepts were rebuilt in the 19th century using much original 15th-century material; they have two orders, the outer continuous with cinque-foiled panelling and the inner on shafts. The chancel arch, entirely rebuilt in 1834, is similar, while internal buttresses added in the 15th century also feature tiers of cinquefoil panelling. A gallery survives in the south transept, dating from around 1806; it stands on three four-centred arches and has narrow vertical tracery panels on its front.

The church was reordered in the late 20th century and features a low platform in the east end of the nave. The sanctuary contains blind traceried timber panelling and an elegant gilded wooden reredos designed by Bodley. This reredos has an arched, shouldered head divided into three traceried panels with carved figures—Christ in the centre flanked by the four evangelists—all beneath ogee arches. The altar frontal is also carved and gilded timber depicting scenes from the life of Christ. A fine 19th-century gilded timber organ case features Gothic canopies above the pipes. A 19th-century polygonal pulpit has blind tracery panels. Some 19th-century benches in the transepts have poppyheads and blind tracery fronts; others have square traceried ends.

Except in the chancel, the church retains its medieval roofs. The nave roof comprises six bays with moulded tie beams, purlins, wall plates, and rafters standing on short posts on corbels with demi-angels. The transept roofs are similar, as is the north aisle roof. The south aisle roof is early 16th-century with four bays divided into panels, each containing a moulded rafter and two moulded purlins. The north porch has a plastered ceiling divided into panels with foliate bosses and moulded ribs.

Two windows by W H Constable of around 1855 are located in the north and south transepts. The south aisle contains some unusual 19th-century glass with diagonal bands of biblical texts and floral quarries in diagonal bands in the opposite direction, possibly dating to the early 19th century. The church contains many good 18th and 19th-century wall tablets, including one to Charles Simeon, vicar (died 1836), set in an elaborate Gothic frame by Humphrey Hopper. Royal arms dating to 1814–37 hang over the tower arch, with an early 19th-century painted text below. A cabinet in the chancel is made from panels salvaged from an 18th-century pulpit.

A fine 19th-century Gothic-style cast-iron fence on the north and east sides features narrow, early 14th-century-style trefoiled arcading divided by bands of quatrefoils. The open polygonal gate posts have trefoiled panels and foliate finials.

A church on this site was destroyed by fire in 1174; the lower part of the west wall may survive from this earlier church. It appears to have been a large building, as the transepts also have early origins, though their date is unknown. The chancel was rebuilt around 1300. In the late 14th century, extensive work was undertaken on the nave, including the addition or rebuilding of the north and south arcades and aisles, and the construction of the west tower inside the west end of the nave. The north and south transepts were rebuilt in the 15th century. The nave clerestory was added in the 15th century, and the west tower was given larger buttresses at the same period. The north porch was added in the late 15th century, and in the early 16th century the south aisle was widened and lengthened toward the west. Galleries began to be added from 1616 onwards, though only that in the south transept survives. The transept arches were rebuilt around 1851. The chancel was wholly rebuilt in brick in 1834 and refaced in stone in 1885, when the organ chamber was also added, as part of works to designs by Bodley that included wider restoration. The spire was rebuilt in 1901.

In the medieval period, the church was an important focus of corporate religion in Cambridge, with at least six guilds and several important devotional images. In the post-Reformation period, Holy Trinity became a centre of Puritanism and later of Evangelism. A town lectureship was established in the early 17th century, and subscribers for a north gallery to provide extra seating included parishioners from at least eight other parishes. Charles Simeon (1759–1836), a noted evangelical, was appointed vicar in 1782 against the wishes of the congregation and was not initially well received. However, by the early 19th century his preaching was so popular that people flocked to his services. The south transept gallery was installed to provide extra seating in 1806 and was paid for by Simeon himself. Other galleries existed in the church but were later removed. Simeon was influential in founding missionary societies, notably the Church Missionary Society, and the church, which has maintained a strong Evangelical tradition, retained close associations with the Society even after his death.