Parish Church Of Holy Trinity

Parish Church of Holy Trinity

This is a parish church on the north-west side of High Street in Hildersham, with origins spanning from around 1200 to the late 19th century. The earliest fabric dates to around 1200 (west tower and vaulted sacristy), with the nave and north and south aisles with clerestory added in the early 13th century and rebuilt in the later 13th century. A north-east vestry was added in the late 14th century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1856, and a south transept added in the late 19th century. A south chapel known as Bustelar's Chapel stood until its demolition in 1803. The church underwent extensive restoration of roofs and fabric between 1878 and 1890 by architect C A Buckler (1824-1905).

The walls are constructed of flint rubble with limestone dressings and clunch interior dressings. The roofs are covered with stone slate, slate, and lead.

The west tower, dating to around 1200, has limestone quoins and lancet-lights. It was raised approximately 13 feet in the 19th century and now has two-light foiled belfry windows and a plain parapet. The nave, with similar quoins and possibly retaining some 12th-century fabric, has a steeply pitched roof and three restored foiled square clerestorey lights. The chancel features 14th-century two-light windows with net-tracery, repeated in the 19th-century version. The south transept has a large 19th-century window with a 14th-century cross finial resited on the parapet gable. A 19th-century south porch has a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders.

The interior displays two-bay north and south nave arcades with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders with labels towards the nave, supported on quatrefoiled piers and shafted responds with deeply moulded capitals and bases raised on stone bases. The chancel arch follows similar details. Two similar two-centred arched doorways lead to the tower. The medieval tower ladder stair retains later rungs.

The chancel decoration was planned by Rev James Goodwin and completed by his son, designed in a style similar to T Gambier Parry's church at Highnam in Gloucestershire and believed to have been executed by Italian craftsmen. The decoration consists of stencilled floral patterns and painted Biblical scenes. This scheme was restored in 1973 by Campbell, Smith and Co under the direction of S E Dykes Bower. An alabaster and marble reredos dates to 1871. The nave has 19th-century arched braced roofs with main trusses springing from stone corbels bearing painted shields of arms of Lords of the Manor.

The chancel contains four brasses and indents. The first is on a small Purbeck slab with effigies approximately 20 inches high: a knight in mail with baseinet and sword, and a lady in cloak and gown with long sleeves and head kerchief. Below are a rectangular matrix for an inscription and, beneath the woman, a Paris shield of arms with twin unicorn heads. This is believed to commemorate Henry Paris Esq (died 1427) and his wife Margaret. The second is on a Purbeck slab with a 3-foot-high brass of a skeleton in shroud, slightly mutilated, dating to around 1530. The third, on a Purbeck slab, shows a bareheaded knight in armour with exaggerated elbow-pieces, sword slung in front, a lion at his feet, and a crocketed ogee canopy with cinque-foil cusping terminating in a small mutilated Trinity. This knight is identified as Henry Paris (Cole), dated perhaps 1488, with two Paris shields of arms flanking the figure. The fourth is on a Purbeck slab with a large foliated cross flanked by two kneeling figures and a centre-piece octofoil frame with rich sub-coping; a matrix beneath accommodates a plinth and four steps. The central frame encloses a "Duality" of God the Father seated holding a crucified Son. The two figures are a man to the right in long cloak and short tunic, bareheaded, and a lady to the left in long-sleeved gown, head kerchief, and cloak. Beneath the man is a Paris shield of arms; beneath the woman, a shield with cross patence and two crescents in chief. This brass is ascribed to Robert Paris and his wife, dated either 1379 or 1408 according to the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments.

A coffin lid of Purbeck marble, dating to the late 13th or early 14th century, is reset in the north wall of the chancel. It is carved in low relief with a cross with trefoiled ends on a stepped base. Fifteenth-century glass has been reset in the south window of the chancel, depicting God the Father and Virgin and Child. The 19th-century east window is by Clayton and Bell. A floor slab is inscribed to Thomas Salt (died 1806) and his wife Mary (died 1811).

The south chapel contains monuments including a grey marble slab inscribed to Sir William Andrew, Bart (died 1759), with a separate slab above bearing the Andrew coat of arms in a cartouche; a white and grey marble slab inscribed to Philip Southcote Esq (died 1758), with a separate slab bearing the Southcote coat of arms impaling Andrew; a damaged black and white marble slab with urn and drapery to John C Middleton Esq of Hildersham Hall (died 1826); and a white and grey marble slab inscribed to Edward Southcote Esq (died 1780), with a separate slab below bearing the Southcote coat of arms in a cartouche. Two wooden effigies of a knight and lady, dating to around 1300 on wooden slabs, were stolen in 1977.

The font dates to the 13th century and is octagonal with panelled sides of simple trefoiled arches with attached shafts at the angles, each with moulded capitals and bases, supported on a central shaft with four octagonal outer shafts, each with moulded capitals and chamfered bases. It is mentioned in the Versus Liber Arch Eliensis of around 1278 as "a font with a lock". The oak cover dates to 1974. An early 17th-century communion table is also present.