Church Of Holy Trinity (Roman Catholic)

Church of Holy Trinity (Roman Catholic)

A Roman Catholic church built in 1832, constructed in the Gothic style. The building is made of squared coursed limestone with a slated roof.

The church is rectangular in plan, oriented roughly north to south, entered from the south with the altar positioned to the north. A single-storey sacristy links the church to the presbytery at the north-west corner.

Externally, the church comprises four bays marked by offset buttresses, with angle buttresses at the western and south-east corners. Both the west and east ends are gabled. The entrance is set within a broad projection forming a vestibule and contains a central pointed-arched doorway with hoodmould and headstops, preserving the original plank and rail door. Above this is a large four-light window with intersecting tracery, flanked by tall single lancets set back to either side. A stone cross tops the central gable; the crocketed finials to the west end are replica replacements dating from 1997. To the sides of the church, each bay contains a two-light pointed window with Y-tracery, each having a hoodmould with headstops.

Inside, the nave and sanctuary are combined, with a shallow vestibule to the west beneath which runs a gallery. The sanctuary ceiling is demarcated with a painted border featuring a painted representation of the Trinity at its centre. The sanctuary walls are decorated with a rich stencil scheme dating from 1932, showing symbols of the evangelists in roundels above and armorial bearings relating to the Fermor family below, all linked by vines. The altar, attributed on stylistic grounds to A W Pugin, is decorated with blind quatrefoil panels and a central open brass tabernacle throne; below the mensa are recessed trefoil niches. Above the altar hangs an 18th-century mirror copy of Jean Jouvenet's Descent from the Cross. To the south of the altar is a stone trefoil-headed piscina. Stone canopied niches either side of the altar hold carved angels, moved from the nave walls probably in 1932. In the sanctuary corners stand polychrome statues of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart on Gothic pedestals, installed in 1932. Original Gothic altar rails with iron intersecting tracery and a mahogany rail enclose the sanctuary, fitted with brass doors. To the south is a timber pulpit with blind trefoil-headed panels, possibly dating from 1932.

The paired lancet windows in the nave contain stained glass, mainly commemorating the local Collingridge family and dating from the mid-19th century to 1870. The five windows nearest the sanctuary are by Francis Barnett of the Edinburgh and Leith Glass Works, a relation by marriage. The narrow oak pews in the nave, with ovals and quatrefoils cut into the sides, are thought to be mid- to late 19th-century. In the south-west corner stands an early 19th-century chamber organ, originally domestic, acquired in 1986. The south-east corner contains a stone octagonal font with an oak cover, its sides carved with quatrefoils; this has also been attributed to Pugin, being similar to that at St John, Banbury where Pugin worked. The gallery features blind Gothic ogival arcading to the front; below are basket-arched doors with Gothic panels below and glazing above.

The single-storey Gothic sacristy linking the church to the presbytery has paired pointed windows below a hoodmould. This has been extended to the north in the late 20th century, the extension being consistent with the church in style and materials, though of lesser architectural interest.