Church Of Holy Trinity

Church of Holy Trinity, Great Paxton

This is a minster church dating to around 1050, originally built to a cruciform plan with a tower over the crossing. The building has been substantially altered and extended over the centuries. The chancel was rebuilt in the late 13th century, the West tower was added in the 14th century, and the North and South aisles were rebuilt in the 15th century. The South porch dates to the 14th century.

Exterior

The walls are mainly pebblestone and rubblestone with Barnack stone dressings. The West tower is a late 14th-century structure with three stages, standing on a splayed plinth. It features three-stage angle buttressing and a newel staircase in the South-East angle. Beast gargoyles project from the centre of the main cornice. A 14th-century West doorway (reset) and 15th-century West window are present. The bell chamber openings consist of two lights with a quatrefoil in the spandrel.

The 11th-century nave has a clerestorey with two round-headed windows and part of a third similar window, now sealed. A later parapet and beast gargoyles sit on a moulded string course at eaves height. The 15th-century South aisle is parapetted with two-stage buttressing and two 15th-century three-light windows.

The 14th-century South porch is gabled with a parapet and coping surmounted by a cross. It has diagonal buttressing and an outer arch of two-centred form. A 15th-century doorway to the South aisle features a two-centred arch of two moulded orders within a square head with carved spandrels. The door itself dates to the 19th century but incorporates 13th-century ironwork (reset).

The chancel has a plain tiled roof with an end parapet. Its South side contains two 15th-century windows and one 13th-century doorway. A 15th-century East window is also present.

Interior

The late 14th-century tower arch is two-centred with three chamfered orders, moulded capitals and bases. The nave was shortened in the 15th century when the West tower was built and now comprises two bays with a sealed half-bay at the West end. Semi-circular headed double recessed arches rest on piers, each of which has four attached shafts divided by rolls or fillets. The piers have abaci and bulbous capitals with moulded bases. Above the nave arcade is a plain string course.

At the crossing, only the arch to the North transept remains. It is tall and semi-circular headed, standing on square piers with responds having attached shafts and rolls or fillets similar to those of the North arcade. The piers to the South crossing are similar to the North, but the arch is 15th-century, two-centred and of three chamfered orders. North of the chancel arch is a 15th-century rood loft entry.

The nave roof is 17th-century, comprising four bays with cambered tie beams. The easternmost beam is carved with the date 1637. The chancel arch was rebuilt in the 15th century and is similar to that of the South crossing, but the responds are 11th-century with engaged shafts divided by rolls or fillets similar to those of the arcade. However, the capitals were replaced by embattled dentils in the 15th century.

A late 13th-century or early 14th-century piscina is located in the South wall at the East end, featuring a hollow-chamfered two-centred arch with an octofoil-form drain that projects forward from the wall face and rests on a corbel. The sedilia is of the same date, with two-centred, hollow-chamfered arches with cinquefoil heads divided by a round column with moulded capital and base. Hollow moulded labels have mask stops. A 15th-century font has an octagonal bowl on a plain stem.