The Parish Church Of The Holy Trinity

The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, Hurstpierpoint

This is a parish church built in 1843-45 to replace the medieval church that had previously occupied the site. It was designed by the eminent architect Sir Charles Barry and built by Thomas Wisden. The church is constructed of local Wealden sandstone with slate roofs and a stone spire.

The building follows a cruciform plan, with a north-west tower containing a porch beneath it, a nave with four-bay aisle to the north and five-bay aisle to the south, north and south transepts (the south being shallower), and a chancel with north and south chapels. A north chapel (St Lawrence) was added in 1854 and a south chapel in 1874. A north porch was added in 1908.

The exterior is designed in the style of circa 1300 Decorated Gothic. The building features offset buttresses, set back at angles. The three-stage tower has paired openings to the top stage with Y-tracery and louvers, a moulded cornice with ball-flower decoration, and is topped by a stone broach spire with lucarnes. The tower porch and west entrance have oak doors with decorative iron hingework. Clocks by BL Vulliamy, clockmaker to Queen Victoria, were installed with dials designed by Barry. A bellcote sits at the west end of the nave roof.

Windows throughout feature geometric Decorated tracery. The east window was enlarged in 1902 and given later 14th-century-style flowing tracery with mouchettes. Nave windows have paired lights with trefoil heads, and clerestorey windows replicate the form of the upper arches of the nave windows but with three quatrefoils. Most door and window openings have hood-moulds with carved stops. The north-west porch and west entrance have roll-moulded arches. Medieval gargoyles, reset above rainwater heads, mark the angles to the chancel and north and south chapels.

Inside, the nave has an open trussed roof and retains original oak benches extending across the north and south aisles, with fleur-de-lys poppyheads to the bench ends (those in the transepts and crossing have been removed). The nave and chancel arcades are carried on cluster columns with moulded capitals and bases. Spandrels are decorated with carvings of heads, foliage clusters, and portrait busts. The north transept, known as the Campion Chapel, was converted into a memorial chapel in 1924 to commemorate the dead of World War I. A stone pulpit south of the chancel arch features blind tracery. The chancel has two-bay arcades. Portrait busts of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert flank the chancel arch.

The interior also contains later High Victorian Gothic stalls, a reredos, and mosaic pavement, probably designed by Edward Barry. The south chapel is now used as an organ chamber and vestry. The tower porch ceiling has a decorated panel depicting the Holy Trinity, added in 1957 and painted by John Denham.

The church contains an exceptional collection of stained glass. The majority, dating from the 1860s, is by John Hardman & Co of Birmingham, including works depicting the Crucifixion (north transept), Descent from the Cross (west end), and Resurrection (south transept). The clerestorey windows contain shields by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The east window, also showing the Crucifixion, was installed in 1902 in memory of Charles Campion, who was killed in the Boer War, and was designed by CE Kempe. It replaced an earlier Ascension window by Hardman. The east window of the north chapel dates from 1917 and is also by Kempe & Co. The south chapel contains a three-light window with 15 medallions of German or Flemish origin, probably from the late 16th century, collected by Bishop Butler of Durham in the 18th century. These mostly depict Old and New Testament scenes. Four similar oval cartouches are inset in the west window of the tower porch, all installed in 1861.

The chancel features ironwork grilles dating from 1876, and the transept has similar grilles from around 1890. Both are of high quality and are copies of the Arundel screen (1478) at Chichester Cathedral.

Several significant features from the old church have been preserved and incorporated. These include reset circa 1300 sedilia in the south transept wall, and 13th-century sedilia in the south wall of the south transept. The font, positioned at the west end of the south aisle, probably dates from circa 1200. It is a heavy tub-shaped stone bowl that was reworked by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1863 and stencilled with red and yellow baptism scenes. Scott also designed the painted and gilded oak font cover.

The church contains two significant medieval effigies. In the south chapel is a recumbent effigy of a knight in chain armour with feet resting against a lion, possibly Robert de Pierpoint, dating from circa 1260. In the north aisle is an effigy of a knight from circa 1340, possibly Simon de Pierpoint, resting on an altar-tomb enclosed by early 16th-century wrought-iron railings.

The church houses eight bells, three of which date from 1775. Numerous 18th and early 19th-century wall tablets are displayed throughout. The churchyard contains five tapering coffin-lids from the 12th or 13th century positioned by the west wall, and a pleasing ensemble of 18th and early 19th-century monuments.

Historically, a church at Hurstpierpoint is recorded in Domesday Book of 1086. The church that previously occupied this site was dedicated to St Lawrence and comprised a square Norman west tower with a shingle spire, nave and south aisle, chancel, and south chapel known as the Danny Chapel. Records indicate this building was heavily remodelled in the early 15th century, and by the early 19th century it had lost its medieval window tracery and other features, having been fitted with galleries and box pews. In 1842, the parish resolved to rebuild the church, which had become too small for the growing population. The new church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was designed by Sir Charles Barry and constructed in 1843-45, with seating for 1,030 people, of which 600 were free seats. A number of monuments and features from the old church were retained, though others were dispersed around the locality.