Church Of Holy Trinity

The Church of Holy Trinity is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the late 14th century. Further restoration took place in 1844, 1867, and 1875. The church is constructed primarily of flint with ashlar dressings, and has slate roofs. It comprises a west tower, a south aisle, and a continuous nave and chancel.

The tower is of Perpendicular style, standing four stages high with angle buttresses. It features an arched west door below a five-light window with panel tracery and an embattled transom. Quatrefoil windows are positioned in the ringing chamber which is sheltered by square hoods on label stops, and there are three-light belfry windows above. The south porch has been heavily restored. The south aisle is characterized by stepped buttresses between three two-light, 19th-century, segmental-headed, Perpendicular windows, beneath a lead roof. An east window of three lights is also present in the aisle. Diagonal buttresses define the chancel, and two-light windows in the Perpendicular style are situated on its side, with arches that are two-centred. The chancel’s four-light east window dates from the late 14th century and displays transitional Decorated to Perpendicular features. A vestry is attached to the north chancel. Three three-light nave windows of Perpendicular form were inserted in 1867. A blocked north door, dating to the early 12th century, is visible, showcasing single order columns with cushion capitals, square imposts, and a roll-moulded arch in two orders enclosing a tympanum of lozenge diaper.

Inside, a four-bay south arcade features octagonal piers with high bell-moulded bases and moulded polygonal capitals; the two eastern capitals have blank merlons. Double chamfered arches and a Perpendicular wave and roll moulded tower arch are also present. The nave roof, dating to 1844, incorporates arched braces that drop to figurative corbels. Eleven 15th-century benches are in place, featuring pierced tracery backs and poppyheads. A mid-14th-century octagonal font is decorated with tracery patterns on its stem and bowl. A south-east aisle chapel, accessible from the chancel via a four-centred doorway, contains a table tomb dedicated to John and Anne Steward, dating from 1604. The tomb chest is rectangular with clasping pilasters at the corners and centre of the long side, adorned with painted tracery motifs on the pilasters and painted coats of arms in the intervening space. Painted chalk effigies lie beneath a plain canopy, constructed in the form of an unadorned entablature supported on three tapering octagonal columns with applied palmette leaves to the lower half. An inscription is present in the canopy’s frieze, and the canopy is surmounted by a painted achievement within an elaborate strapwork frame. The chancel roof, dating to 1846, is supported on fine late 14th-century figurative corbels. A white marble monument to Henry Villebois, dated 1847 and created by Richard Westmacott (the younger), is located on the north chancel wall. This features a niche under a stilted arch containing figures of two mourning angels, overlooking an inscribed tomb chest bearing an open bible and a Latin cross. The royal arms of James I, painted on wood, date from 1619 and are positioned beneath the tower. Hexagonal floor tiles are found throughout the church.