Holy Trinity Church

Holy Trinity Church

Parish church comprising a nave and chancel under one roof, north and south aisles, west tower, and south porch. The tower dates from the early to mid-14th century, with the remainder of the building constructed in the mid to late 15th century. The structure is built of random flint with stone dressings, some brickwork to window arches, and lead roofs.

The tower rises in four stages with three-stage diagonal buttresses and string courses at each stage level. It features a crenellated parapet with some flushwork and single-light bell chamber openings without tracery. At the base of the third stage (except on the east face) is a cinquefoil-headed lancet window. A 15th-century three-light west window has renewed tracery. The clerestorey contains eighteen identical two-light windows to north and south.

The chancel extends one bay east of the aisles, where the windows are bricked up. At the chancel's east end is a five-light window with renewed tracery, below which is a flushwork frieze of twelve Lombardic letters with further flushwork on either side. At the apex of the gable is a mutilated carved Trinity.

The north aisle comprises eight bays and the south aisle seven bays, with the porch at the west end. The eastern two bays of the aisles have windows of a slightly different design. Both aisles feature flushwork decoration to the buttresses. The south aisle and porch are notable for a fine parapet of pierced quatrefoils with ogee cappings, beneath which is a frieze of lozenge flushwork and a carved string course. The buttresses have pinnacles with grotesque finials. Each aisle contains a Priest's doorway under a flying buttress; the southern doorway has a mutilated stoup. The porch, with a Priest's room above, features a knapped flint façade with an empty niche over the doorway and a good external stoup with carved shaft and bowl. The tierceron vaulted roof was renewed in the 1930s. Both north and south doorways have 15th-century traceried doors.

The interior contains eight-bay aisle arcades with flooring of red brick and unglazed tile. A fine ten-bay arch-braced roof spans the nave with firred tie beams; the cornice is missing. At the centre of each tie beam is a carved boss and angels with outstretched wings facing east and west, of which eleven angels remain with some wings renewed. Much original painted decoration survives. The lean-to aisle roofs have traceried spandrels.

Notable furnishings include an octagonal font dating to around 1450, formerly carved with the Seven Sacraments. A good set of eighteen 15th-century nave benches with carved finials is preserved, along with a 15th-century lectern. The pulpit dates to around 1670. A fine alms box dated 1473 with traceried carving is present, as is a mid to late 17th-century Clock Jack at the east end of the south aisle. Fifteenth-century wooden aisle screens remain, the nave screen being a modern reconstruction to the same pattern. The choir stalls have finely carved frontals featuring sixteen figures of Apostles and Saints, possibly once forming the rood loft parapet.

A good monument to Sir John Hopton (died 1489) consists of a Purbeck marble tomb chest with brasses now missing, decorated with three cusped quatrefoils containing painted shields, a richly traceried and crested canopy rising above. Another plain tomb chest stands in the north aisle. Several 17th-century carved marble floor slabs are located in the chancel, and fragments of medieval stained glass remain in the aisle windows.

The church is graded I for its surviving medieval work.