Church of Holy Trinity

Church of Holy Trinity, Cookham

This is a parish church of 12th-century origin, substantially enlarged and altered over the following centuries. The building comprises a chancel, five-bay nave, four-bay north aisle, two-bay north chapel, six-bay south aisle, and south chapel, all roofed in tile. The walls are constructed of part chalk and part flint with chalk diapering. A west tower was added around 1500.

The chancel and north chapel were added in the early 13th century, with the north arcade of the nave and south aisle following in the late 13th century, when the chancel arch was reconstructed. Further alterations occurred in the early 14th century. The 17th and 18th centuries saw repairs to buttresses and walls, and the building underwent restoration in 1860.

The west tower rises in three stages beneath an embattled parapet, with a diagonal buttress of four offsets at its western angles. An embattled stair turret in the north-east angle rises above the parapet. The west doorway has a four-centred head within a square external label. Above it is a window of three uncusped lights with four-centred heads, also within a square external head and label. The ringing chamber contains a west window of two four-centred lights with square external head and label, while the bell chamber has similar windows on all four sides.

The chancel has two round-headed lancets to north and south, and on the east wall a three-light window with 19th-century tracery set within early 14th-century jambs. The north chapel and north aisle feature on the east a late 17th-century three-light window with diamond leading. The north side of the chapel has two 19th-century lancets with a small 19th-century doorway between them, and to the right, three plain early 13th-century lancets with a blocked doorway between the two westernmost, the doorway having a two-centred head of two orders, the outer moulded and supported by jamb shafts with stiff leaf capitals.

On the north side of the nave is a 19th-century lancet and, to its right, a mid-12th-century round-headed window, with a further 19th-century lancet on the west side.

The south chapel has on the east a three-light window with 19th-century tracery and a moulded rear arch with shafted jambs of early 14th-century date. On the south wall at the right is a two-light window with a two-centred head, pierced and foliated spandrel with 19th-century tracery, and to its left an early 14th-century window with plain tracery under a two-centred head. The south aisle contains three late 13th-century windows: the two eastern are of two pointed uncusped lights, while the westernmost is similar but with the outer part of the heads continued to form an enclosing arch with pierced spandrel, forming a good example of early tracery. Between the western windows is the south doorway with original jambs and rear arch in a 19th-century porch, with a blocked second doorway at the south-east. The west wall has a single lancet.

Internally, the nave has an early 14th-century roof with octagonal crown posts and straight braces to a collar purlin, with moulded tie beams. The north aisle and north chapel roofs are similar but plastered at collar level, as are the six-bay south aisle and chapel roofs.

The two-bay north aisle arcade has two-centred arches of two hollow-chamfered orders, the outer having stopped chamfers, with semi-octagonal responds bearing moulded capitals and bases, constructed of part chalk and part later stone. A two-centre drop arch of circa 1200 with a single order, moulded angles and nailhead ornament opens into the north chapel. The four-bay south arcade is of chalk, with arches of two chamfered orders supported by octagonal columns and responds. A two-bay arcade with two-centred arches of two hollow-chamfered orders and octagonal columns opens into the south chapel.

The chancel arch is two-centred with two hollow-chamfered orders, labels on both faces, and semi-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and bases. Medieval floor tiles remain at the east end of the chancel. A 13th-century piscina with a trefoil head is positioned at the south-east of the north chapel, with a similar one at the south-east of the south chapel.

Notable monuments include a Purbeck marble table tomb against the north wall of the chancel with a vaulted canopy supported by twisted columns. The slab bears an elaborate brass identifying it as the tomb of Robert Peeke, clerk of the spicery to Henry VI, and his wife, dated 1517. In the north chapel is a tablet with small kneeling figures in white relief by Flaxman, commemorating Sir Isaac Pocock, drowned in the Thames in 1810. On the south wall of the south chapel is an elaborate mural tablet with kneeling figures to Arthur Babham, dated 1560, surmounted by an entablature crowned by a shield of his arms.