Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity

This is a mid-Victorian Gothic Revival church built in the style of the late 13th century, constructed in two phases during the 1860s and 1870s to meet the growing need for Anglican church accommodation in Sittingbourne. The first phase, consisting of the nave and aisles, was completed in 1867 under the architect Richard Charles Hussey (1806-87), a London-based designer who had previously been in partnership with Thomas Rickman and who created nearly 50 churches and parsonages across England between 1839 and 1870. The second phase, which included the chancel, transept, porches and tower, was designed by Joseph Clarke (1819 or 20-1888), another London-based architect whose practice was predominantly concerned with church-building and restoration. Clarke served as diocesan surveyor to Canterbury, Rochester and St Albans, and his works are found throughout England.

The building is constructed of Kentish ragstone with limestone dressings and is roofed with slate. The plan comprises a nave with flanking aisles under their own gables, a chancel, north transept, north and south porches and a south tower. The design is characterized by Geometrical style windows used extensively throughout, with all parts separately articulated according to the ecclesiological taste of the period. The tower is plain in its lower portion and features paired, shafted lancets for belfry windows, with a design and parapet suggesting a spire may have been originally intended.

The interior walls are plastered and whitened. The arcades between the aisles and nave comprise four bays with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and bases, and arches with roll-moulding on the soffits. The chancel arch is double chamfered. The nave is spanned by a hammerbeam roof with slender timber members and intermediate arch-braced traces. The chancel has a simple close-coupled roof with main trusses and a collar, whilst the aisles have tie-beam roofs with arch braces to a collar. A notable feature occurs at the first pier from the east: two responds of unequal height mounted back-to-back, which represents a likely design change between the two building campaigns and may be a deliberate attempt to introduce a feature suggestive of the organic development typical of medieval churches.

Most fixtures are original to the Victorian church. The font features an octagonal bowl with nodding ogee arches and stiff-leaf decoration, and is mounted on a counter-weighted pyramidal cover with blind tracery panels. The stone tub pulpit is plain with a moulded cornice, a band of text and a thick octagonal stem. The reredos consists of blind tracery stone arches on marble shafts with painted panels of Old Testament prophets and other figures of unknown date and artist, but of good quality. Fine stalls with open traceried fronts and poppy-head ends are a particular feature. The pews are of pine with simple shaped ends of the rounded shoulder type, many retaining their Victorian numbering. Pews to the west of the north and south entrances were removed in 2009 to create a circulation space with refreshment facilities. Stained glass includes a north chapel east window of 1901 signed by T F Curtis, Ward and Hughes, and an east window of 1896 by Ward and Hughes.

The church was built to serve increased Anglican accommodation needs in the expanding parish. Population fluctuations during the period are documented by an 1872 grant application to the Incorporated Church Building Society, which noted that the census of 1871 recorded a population of 2553 (reduced from 3000 during a depression in the brick trade), with prospects of further increase among a population consisting mainly of the very poor. Design changes between the two building phases are evident, suggesting a responsive approach to ongoing development. The reredos with its good paintings of Old Testament prophets and the choir stalls with their elegant pierced frontals and attenuated poppy-head bench ends represent the finest Victorian work within the church.