Church Of The Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a Grade II listed building standing on Rickmansworth Road, Northwood.

The church was built in 1852–3 to the design of Samuel Sanders Teulon, a prominent Victorian church architect. It was commissioned by Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury to serve the northern part of Ruislip parish, then agricultural land (it became known as the 'Church in the Meadows'). The foundation stone was laid on 12 October 1852 and the church was consecrated on 5 January 1854. The arrival of the Metropolitan Railway in 1887 prompted population growth and the need for expansion. A north aisle was added in 1894–5 (sources differ on the architect: either JEK and JP Cutts, or Messrs Fassnidge of Uxbridge). Further expansion followed in 1927, when the nave was extended westward by 4.5 metres and a south aisle and west baptistry were added by WC Waymouth.

The church is built in flint rubble with limestone dressings and a red tiled roof, except for grey Welsh slates to the spire. Teulon's architectural style derives from late 13th and early 14th-century medieval Gothic. The design is known for being one of his least ostentatious works.

The church presents a symmetrical west end to the main road, with three gables—the nave being higher and wider than the flanking aisles. The west end also incorporates a baptistry with two flanking vestibules set below the west window. The nave's west window has a 1–2–1 rhythm under a superarch. The aisle west windows contain flowing tracery and are designed to match one another. The south elevation is dominated by two paired gables, each containing a two-light window, an arrangement that resembles transepts but lacks that expression internally. The east window has three lights; other windows are mostly one- or two-light designs. A tower with a low, chamfered spire rises at the east end of the north aisle, forming an important visual landmark. The base of both the west and south sides of the tower carries a clock face beneath a gable. The south porch features ornate timber superstructure on a stone base.

The interior contains a six-bay nave with aisles on either side (created by later additions). The north arcade has double-chamfered arches with round piers and capitals. The south arcade employs a markedly different design, apparently after considerable debate: the arches die into the piers, and shafts rise on the north and south faces to corbels supporting the wall-posts of the roof. The chancel arch has foliage corbels, semi-circular responds, and a moulded arch. The nave roof is of hammer-beam construction.

Original fittings include the font and pulpit. Some pews are thought to date from the 1850s (notably those on the south side of the central alley), with others added to the same design forming a largely complete ensemble. The reredos, bearing Instruments of the Passion, and its flanking arcading, are original to the church.

The church contains stained glass by various artists spanning from the 19th to the 20th century. Glass probably dating from 1854 appears in the Lady Chapel southeast window and two north aisle windows. A Morris & Co window of 1887, designed by Edward Burne-Jones, is in the Lady Chapel southwest window. Later contributions include Powell & Sons (east window, 1935; Lady Chapel east, 1933), Shrigley & Hunt (St George in the south aisle, 1920), and Sir Ninian Comper (baptistry west, 1930).