Church of St Paul

The Church of St Paul is a parish church dating from 1862 to 1864, designed by Henry Woodyer in the Decorated style. Aisle additions were made in 1874. It is constructed of squared Pennant sandstone rubble with Bath stone dressings, featuring tiled roofs over the nave and chancel, and lead roofs over the aisles and vestry. The church comprises a nave with clerestoreys, north and south aisles, a chancel, a vestry, a north chapel, an organ chamber, a south chapel, a north-west porch, and a tower with a spire.

The exterior features a plinth, moulded strings, an eaves course, decorated parapets with circular motifs on the tower, and blind arcading to the aisles, along with coped gables. The windows are largely three-light, with four lights on the north aisle, six on the south, and decorative buttresses between. A three-light window with reticulated tracery is found on the east end of the nave, and a four-light window with intersecting tracery on the west end. The clerestoreys have six five-light windows on each side. The four-stage tower has moulded strings, angled buttresses, pinnacles with crockets, a broached spire with a weathervane, and C13 style plate traceried windows.

The interior of the five-bay nave has a moulded arched and scissor-braced roof with tracery between spandrels and arch braced collars, as well as butt purlins. The north and south arcades feature quatrefoil columns with thin shafts in the diagonals, and leaf capitals. The clerestoreys include rere-arches on detached shafts. The chancel has moulded arch braced collars, moulded and decorated butt purlins, and double arched windbraces. The south wall of the chancel has four low quatrefoil clerestory windows, and a two-bay arcade separating the south chapel. A pointed arch doorway leads to the vestry and is decorated with gilded foliage. An elaborately carved stone reredos depicts the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. A fine fresco and carved oak screen are also present. The font, with an art nouveau style bowl decorated with water lilies and intertwined stalks, is covered by an elaborate carved wooden cover. Stained glass is the work of Hardman. The church was gifted to the town by John Walter of Bear Wood.