Church Of The Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a large Gothic Revival church designed by Ewan Christian and built in phases between 1866 and 1888. The south aisle and transept were finished in 1882, with the north aisle, transept and tower completed in 1888. Further work was carried out by G H Fellowes Prynne in the early 20th century: vestries in 1913 and a southwest porch in 1927-8.

Materials and Construction

The church is constructed of squared Kentish ragstone rubble with Bath stone dressings, incorporating small amounts of red polychrome brick and stone for decorative details. The roofs are slate-covered.

Plan and Layout

The church has a nave with clerestory, a semi-circular apsidal chancel, and an octagonal crossing tower positioned over the choir. North and south transepts are gabled, and north and south aisles feature transverse gabled bays. Additional elements include a northwest porch, southwest porch and northeast vestries.

Exterior

The architectural style references 13th-century Gothic, characterised by lancet and plate tracery windows. The principal facade faces south onto Sandgate Road and is dominated by the scale of the nave roof, the crossing tower, the series of transverse gables on the aisle, and the large transept gable. A decorative cornice runs throughout.

The clerestory features paired lancet windows positioned opposite the valleys of the aisle gables. These gables, separated by buttresses, contain two-light windows with punched round windows in the masonry above. Like the windows on the transepts and apse, these have brick and stone polychrome heads.

The buttressed south transept has a door with a polychrome head, three tall lancets of equal height, and in the gable an oculus with sexfoil cusping set within a polychrome frieze and polychrome head. Between the springing of the apse windows and the eaves, stone polychrome decoration of grey and cream lozenges emphasises this section of the building.

The crossing tower transitions from square to octagonal, with the octagonal stage having single-light moulded and shafted openings and a 13th-century-style cornice below the octagonal slated spirelet. The west end has a pair of two-light windows and a large rose window in the gable.

The north transept includes a projecting stair turret providing access to the upper level of the organ chamber. Abutting the north transept is a northeast vestry which is flat-roofed and embattled. The southwest porch is also flat-roofed with a plain parapet.

Interior

The internal walls are bare brick with polychromatic detail and stone dressings. The interior is on a massive scale with a nave of great width. At the east end of the nave stands a very tall crossing arch on corbelled stone shafts with carved capitals. A similar arch leads into the sanctuary space, while plainer arches open into the organ chamber in the north transept and the chapel in the south. The apse windows have shafts with carved capitals between them.

The five-bay arcades to the aisles feature circular Mansfield sandstone columns on square stone bases with carved capitals of different designs. The tie-beams of the nave roof carry crown-posts and are supported on carved corbels with detached wall-shafts.

In the sanctuary, the roof has a painted ceiling depicting Christ in Majesty accompanied by saints and angels, with ribs extending into shafts with carved capitals on either side of the windows. Wooden flooring was installed at the east end of the nave in 2009.

Principal Fixtures

The fittings throughout are of excellent quality. The gilded and painted Italianate reredos by Clayton and Bell dates from 1889 and depicts scenes from the Life of Christ flanked by panels with angels and other figures. The sides of the reredos are hinged. A decorative brass sanctuary rail is also present.

The pulpit, wall to the chancel and lectern form a unified design in alabaster and marble by Fellowes Prynne. The pulpit was erected as a First World War memorial, with a sounding board and panelling added in 1925. It features white marble figures of the British national saints on a base with multi-coloured polished marble shafts and inset marble panels. The lectern has a statue of St John the Evangelist.

The low screen has fine wrought-iron gates and grilles with standing bronze archangels. The gates feature copper panels and enamel monograms. A similar wrought-iron screen of 1909 divides the body of the church from the south chapel.

The choir stalls have decorative traceried panels, while the nave contains simple benches with shaped ends. At the west end, the nave is decorated with wood panelling featuring flamboyant blind tracery of 1906 from designs by G H Fellowes Prynne, serving as a backdrop to the contemporary font and font cover.

The font of 1907 is made up of polished marbles and stands on a base with multi-coloured marble shafts, which in turn rest on a base of dark polished Labrador stone plinth. The cover is richly crocketed and traceried and dates from 1909.

Stained Glass

There is a good collection of stained glass from the 19th and 20th centuries. The large west window of the nave is a fine example of late 19th-century craftsmanship, depicting nine choirs of angels giving praise to the Holy Trinity. The south transept east window is probably by Clayton and Bell and records a death in 1887. The south window is by Morris and Co, 1922.

The north aisle and chancel windows were blown out in the Second World War and have been replaced with 20th-century glass. The north aisle northeast window is by J E Nuttgens, with the three next to it by F W Cole of Canterbury Cathedral Glassworks. The sanctuary windows were designed by G E R Smith and H L Pawle of A K Nicholson.

History

Holy Trinity church was built in phases over approximately 20 years at a total cost of £13,357, paid for by the 3rd and 4th Earls of Radnor. Construction was initiated as part of the planned expansion of the town, prompted by Folkestone's increasing popularity as a holiday resort for wealthy visitors. When commenced, the church stood on the edge of the town surrounded by fields. The congregation was considerably enlarged by visitors during the summer months, and the expensive fittings reflect the status and prosperity of the congregation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The resulting building is one of the finest works by its architect, Ewan Christian (1814-95), whilst the vestries of 1913 and the southwest porch of 1927-8 are by G H Fellowes Prynne, who also embellished the building with fixtures of the highest quality.

The Architects

Ewan Christian (1814-95) was a prolific architect whose speciality was church work. He was educated at Christ's Hospital until 1829 when he was articled to Matthew Habershon. He broadened his education with travel on the continent in 1834 and the following year assisted one of the entrants in the New Palace of Westminster competition with the drawings. He worked in the offices of William Railton in London and then John Brown in Norwich. He commenced practice in 1842 and was appointed architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1851, a post which brought many commissions, especially in the chancels for which the Commissioners were responsible. He gained a reputation for efficiency and bringing jobs in on time and on budget. However, his work does not generally enjoy a high reputation and much of it is quite routine, although his best churches, notably St Mark, Leicester, and Holy Trinity, Folkestone, can stand comparison with the better churches of the 19th century.

Christian was a Low Churchman, as were many of his clients. The churchmanship at Holy Trinity is described as Broad Church and was thus in contrast to that at other churches in Folkestone, notably St Peter's which was the scene of intense ritual controversy in the 1870s. The wide, spacious nave, designed for congregational worship, is in marked contrast to Anglo-Catholic churches of its time.

George Halford Fellowes Prynne (1853-1927) emigrated to Canada in 1871 where he became a pupil of Richard Windeyer (c1830-1900) of Toronto from 1872 to 1875, when he returned to England and became an improver in the office of G E Street. He then worked with other architects until setting up in independent practice in 1879. He established a good reputation as a church architect and was diocesan architect for Oxford from 1913. Prynne was a devout Anglo-Catholic and is a slightly surprising choice for work at Holy Trinity, but he appears to have enjoyed an association with the church for over 20 years.