Church of St Luke with Holy Trinity

Church of St Luke with Holy Trinity

This church dates from 1630-1639, with substantial additions made in 1840, 1874, and 1956. It is built of red brick with high pitched tiled roofs.

The church is oriented east to west, with the tower positioned at the west end and a porch to the south leading into the nave. The original chancel, dating to around 1630, was later incorporated into the nave when a new chancel was constructed to its east in 1840. The north aisle exists in two sections: the western half was added possibly in 1639, while the eastern half, now the Lady Chapel, dates to at least the same period as the original chancel. A vestry was added to the north of the chancel extension in 1874, with an organ chamber at the east end of the Lady Chapel. A further vestry and kitchen block was attached at the north-east corner in 1956.

The core of the church from around 1630 comprises a two-bay nave, porch, and tower. The porch is constructed in Flemish bond rather than English bond, suggesting it may be slightly later in date. It features a shaped gable with a rusticated round-arched entrance having a prominent keystone, blind arches on its west and east sides, and pilasters at the corners. The panelled door is original, with its arch enriched by beams radiating from a cherub's head. The tower rises in three stages marked by storey bands, culminating in a battlemented parapet above a stone modillion cornice. The belfry windows display Y-tracery. In the first stage, to the west, is a large Decorated-style window with a quatrefoil roundel above paired cinquefoil lights, a model repeated elsewhere in the earlier parts of the church.

The west wall of the nave contains an oculus, apparently a later insertion cut through the platband, which formerly contained a quatrefoil. The south wall of the nave has a Decorated window similar to that in the tower, with a sundial above it dating from 1933. The 1639 chancel is also of two bays and features a round-arched blocked opening to the west, a former door to the squire's pew. A stone two-light trefoil-headed window to the east has a trimmed hood mould and is set within a brick arch. This window appears to be earlier than the existing church and may have been retained from a 15th-century predecessor.

The 1840 chancel extension has a tall blocked opening to the south with a stone-coped shaped gable, and at its east end is a four-centred arched window with three cinquefoil-headed lights. The north aisle comprises two bays with Decorated windows, including an example in the eastern bay of the Lady Chapel that copies the earlier model. The two-light western window of the Lady Chapel may represent another reuse or retention of earlier material. Sturdy buttresses stand between the windows and at the end of the Lady Chapel. The Lady Chapel wall has been rendered with faux brickwork.

The 1874 vestry extension at the eastern end has a plate-traceried pointed-arched window to the east and a two-light square-headed window to the north, with a gabled porch to the south. The flat-roofed 1956 vestry block is plain in style, with an entrance to the west.

Internally, the two-bay nave is separated from the aisle by two round arches springing from a square pier with a Classical appearance, featuring attached shafts at the corners. Similar piers support the arch between the old and new chancels, and between the new chancel and organ chamber. The nave arcade continues to the east with lower arches on plain rectangular piers. The rebuilt roof of the nave was reconstructed in 1925 with plain tie-beams. The north aisle has a flat roof with a cornice. The old chancel retains a 17th-century coffered roof vaulted above the beams, a design repeated over the later chancel and Lady Chapel.

The timber panelled reredos extending across the east wall of the chancel is painted with figures of angels and Biblical texts. The south wall contains a piscina carved with wheat and vines. High-backed choir stalls stand against the south wall. A late 19th-century altar rail with barley-sugar columns screens the chancel, and a similar rail separates the organ chamber from the chancel. The organ, by James Walker and dated 1890 in the National Pipe Organ Register, occupies the organ chamber. In the Lady Chapel, a carved screen behind the altar is said to have been brought from the 17th-century chapel at Charlton House.

The polygonal pulpit dates from around 1630 and features eared and scrolled panels decorated with the arms of Sir David Cunningham, one of the trustees for the rebuilding. The hexagonal sounding board that once hung above it is now in the tower. The stone font is from the later 17th century, with a shallow round bowl on a baluster shaft. The bowl is carved with swags and shells, whilst the baluster is carved with acanthus leaves. The pews date from the 1873 refurbishment. Most windows contain plain or 19th-century stained glass, with the post-war east window glass by C F Blakeman and one north aisle window holding 17th-century armorial glass.

The church contains a rich collection of monuments. On the south wall of the nave is a stone tablet with arms commemorating Edward Wilkinson, master cook to Queen Elizabeth, who died in 1561. Near the south door stands a monument to Katherine, Lady Newton, who died in 1630 and was the wife of Sir Adrian Newton, created by Nicholas Stone. It is an aedicule of black and white marbles with a broken segmental pediment. In the tower is a monument to Grace, Viscountess of Ardmagh, who died in 1700, and her husband Sir William Langhorn, who died in 1714 and was a benefactor of the church. This is of similar type but with a scrolled broken pediment, the tablet inscription carved with draperies, cherubs and flowers, and the whole flanked by standing allegorical figures. In the old chancel, Brigadier Michael Richards, Surveyor General of the Ordnance, who died in 1721, is commemorated by a late example of a funeral monument featuring a free-standing figure in armour, thought to be by Giovanni Battista Guelfi. The monument to Spencer Perceval, the prime minister assassinated in 1812, is a simple wall monument with a bust by Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841), located at the west end of the north aisle. The church also contains small late 16th-century and early 17th-century brass memorials.

The 1874 vestry contains a plaque commemorating the erection of the 1715 charity school and vestry by Sir William Langhorn, and another noting their demolition in 1840 for the erection of the new chancel. The 1956 vestry block contains fitted cupboards.