Church Of Holy Trinity

Church of Holy Trinity

This is a parish church of late 13th-century origin with 14th-century additions and a major restoration carried out in 1876 by R R Rowe. The building is constructed of rubblestone and limestone ashlar with dressed limestone, and features leaded roofs with end parapets topped with 19th-century gable crosses.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, transepts on both sides, north and south porches, and a chancel with a north vestry.

The west tower is 14th-century in origin but was entirely rebuilt in 1876 by R R Rowe in memory of the 4th Earl of Hardwicke, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, funded by public subscription. It rises through four stages with deep moulded main cornices. Built in stone ashlar, it incorporates some medieval work. The west doorway features a two-centred arch with four hollow and roll-moulded orders carried on ring shafts of pink marble. The west window is 14th-century, reset with three trefoil lights in a two-centred arch with reticulated tracery, its surround enriched with an inner order of ballflower and an outer order of dogtooth ornament. The second stage has a circular window on each side wall with two orders of ballflower enrichment. The bell stage contains a pair of lancets to each side.

The nave features coursed limestone ashlar with a 14th-century clerestory and blocked parapet, the main cornice bearing large beast and grotesque gargoyles (similar to those at Over Church, Cambridgeshire). The clerestory has six windows on each side, each comprising two trefoil lights in two-centred arches.

The south aisle has sandstone rubble walls with limestone dressings and contains five windows, of which three are restored and two are 14th-century in part. The blocked limestone parapet bears three grotesque gargoyles. The south porch is 14th-century, built of coursed limestone with two-stage angle buttressing. Its gabled roof has a blocked parapet and end parapet with corner pinnacles; the main cornice carries gargoyles round from the south aisle. The outer arch is two-centred with hollow and ogee moulding on three half-round clustered columns to the responds, and has been restored.

The south chapel is extensively restored but retains in its east wall a window of two cinquefoil lights in a two-centred arch with geometric tracery. A rood loft staircase occupies the angle between the chancel and south transept.

The chancel contains two restored 13th-century lancets and a 14th-century window with reticulated tracery. The east window was restored by Rowe. Restored 13th-century lancets appear in the north wall of the chancel. The north wall of the nave has five 14th-century style trefoil light windows.

Interior

The tower arch is two-centred with hollow and roll-moulded orders. A reset 15th-century chancel screen spans the tower arch, featuring drop tracery to its upper stage and an open lower stage. The bays were originally divided by engaged shafts with embattled capitals and bases. The nave arcade comprises six bays of two-centred double-chamfered arches on octagonal columns with moulded bases. The responds at the west end and at the east end to the transepts have been rebuilt; the east end has similar arches to the transepts, but the piers on the west side are of marble. The transepts are much rebuilt, though the south transept retains the shafted rear arch to the window in its east wall. In the north transept, the east wall contains a niche with an ogee head enriched with running foliate ornament and flanking crocketted pinnacles.

The roof is of 19th-century crown-post type but is carried on original carved corbels. The south aisle likewise has a 19th-century pent roof resting on medieval corbels. A restored doorway in four-centred arch gives access to the rood loft staircase, which originally led to the rood through a doorway in the south wall of the chancel, now blocked.

The 14th-century chancel arch is two-centred with two chamfered orders on clustered engaged columns with splayed bases and moulded capitals. The 13th-century lancets in the chancel have original rear arches, as does the 14th-century window, which has a similar shafted rear arch to that in the south transept. A trefoil-headed low recess appears in the north wall of the chancel.

The pulpit dates from circa 1876 and is constructed of limestone with marble shafts at the angles. The font is 15th-century limestone with an octagonal lead-lined bowl on a stem decorated with four griffins. The bowl sides are carved with rosettes and demi-angels with blank shields of arms; the soffit is also carved with angels.

Monuments and Brasses

The north aisle contains a white marble wall monument to John Towers (died 1677) and a limestone and white marble wall monument to William March (died 1700). Brasses include those of John Godfrey and his wife (1454) and William Noyon (1405), with parts of canopy surviving.