Trinity Church And Hall

Trinity Church and Hall

Presbyterian church, now United Reformed church, built between 1885 and 1891. The hall was constructed in 1885, with the church following in 1890-91. The buildings are constructed in red brick with stone dressings and tile roofs.

The church comprises a nave, south-east tower, narthex with gallery above, short transepts, and a hall. The ritual orientation runs from east to north-west. The west front is buttressed.

The central entrance on the west front is set beneath a gablet with hoodmould, and features a waterleaf moulded arch on shafts. A stone carved tablet above depicts a dove and Holy Bible within a vesica shape, inscribed 'nec tamen consumebatur.' Flanking lancets flank this entrance. Higher up, a pair of three-light traceried windows sits under an encircled sexfoil, with a pair of slender lancets rising to the gable, topped by a small gable cross.

The three-stage red brick tower features stone banding and dressings, rising to a stone spire. A west entrance beneath a simple multiple moulded arch opens to foliate relief carving in the spandrel with an inscription. Paired stone-dressed lancets sit below a small circular light. The bell chamber contains two-light windows separated by a slender shaft. A pierced stone parapet is punctuated by pinnacles at the angles, rising from facetted buttress-like shafts above the second stage. A single light sits above under a pointed hoodmould. The stone spire features tall slender openings, each set under a pointed hoodmould. A memorial stone records that it was laid by Samuel Smith Esq., M.P. on 21 June 1890.

The south elevation shows an aisle in three buttressed bays, each containing three plain lancets with stone cills. Debased quatrefoil clerestorey lights appear two to each bay. The transept entrance is set at an angle. The south transept features narrow deep-set lancets, with a pair of three-light mullion and transom windows above, a cill band, and triple slits above that. A tall facetted lead spire rises over the crossing, with an open chamber above a rectangular gabled base. A single-storey link connects the transept to the hall.

The north elevation is similar in character, with a single-storey south-west room featuring a chequer work parapet. Entrances to the vestries and parish rooms are positioned to the rear.

The four-bay hall stands at right angles to the church. Its gable features stone banding that echoes the tower's treatment. A tall two-light mullion and transom gable window is flanked by single lights. The north elevation is partly rendered, with one bay featuring a gablet over a three-light window with stone cill and transom, a cinquefoil light above, and lancets with coloured glass leaded lights elsewhere. A belfry towards the south gable has tiled flanks and a fretwork chamber.

Interior

The narthex has a polychrome tiled floor and inner oak doors with glazed panels of leaded coloured glass lights; three lancet lights open towards the nave.

The three-bay nave has slender shafts to the responds, with quatrefoil piers to the ritual east and drum piers between. The roof is a variant of hammer beam construction, incorporating tie beams and slender wall posts on corbels rising from above the arcade. The lower tier is coved and plastered between braces, while the upper tier forms a flat roofed vault, close-boarded between ribs. A raked gallery over the narthex features pitch pine seating and a panelled shafted balustrade, with a central clock. Slender annulated shafts mark the transept and chancel arches; the transept roof is close-boarded, a reduced version of the nave roof. A moulded upper chancel arch frames the chancel.

An octagonal stone pulpit features marble shafts and blind arcaded side panels, supported on hefty drum piers, with an attached stone ledger. A small octagonal font, dated 1935, was a gift from Mr and Mrs George Young; the communion table is also their gift. Elders' seating includes pieces from the 1890s. The platform was extended to left and right during the 1980s. Two stained glass nave windows are present. Pitch pine pews, probably from the 1890s, furnish the nave. The rear vestry has a moulded ceiling cornice and an eared architrave to its mantlepiece.

Hall

The hall features a four-bay arcade of octagonal stone piers on the church side, supporting a four-bay trussed roof that is a variant on hammer beam construction, with tie beams supported on braces rising from the piers.