Church Of The Holy Trinity

Church of the Holy Trinity, Church Road, Westbury on Trym, Bristol

A collegiate church founded in 1194, with an early 13th-century nave and aisles, 15th-century chancel, chapels and tower. The building is constructed of rubble with limestone dressings.

The church comprises a polygonal chancel, north and south chapels, an aisled nave, a south porch and a west tower.

Exterior

The polygonal chancel end features three-light Perpendicular windows separated by narrow buttresses with slender diagonally-set buttresses rising from the lower water table to crocketed pinnacles above the crenellated gable parapet. Expressive human gargoyle heads project from the drip. Below is a blocked four-centred crypt window. A low 19th-century vestry to the north has a three-light window with flat head and parapet, with fine east windows to the chapels—four-centred arches with six lights to the south and four to the north, set in shallow crenellated gables. Below the south window the stonework is striped limestone and sandstone rubble.

The north elevation displays a two-bay chapel and four-bay nave separated by a square, crenellated stair turret. Three-light Perpendicular windows divided by buttresses match those of the chancel but lack pinnacles to the nave. The 19th-century west bay extends level with the tower. A Perpendicular five-light square-headed window lights the nave gable, with paired trefoil-headed clerestory windows above—the eastern one larger and, like the nave gable window, designed to light the rood loft.

The south elevation shows a three-bay chapel and chamfered stair turret with a two-light square-headed window and a pair of small quatrefoil panels below. The four-bay nave has a shallow quatrefoil-headed window to the west and the central of the remaining three lights set lower.

A large, square, two-storey porch features small diagonal buttresses to the ground floor. The first floor, with a small trefoil-headed window, slightly overhangs a drip mould. A wide two-centred arched doorway with casement mould opens to a two-leaf oak gate with Perpendicular open panels. Inside, the 13th-century doorway has a continuous inner arch and an outer one with Purbeck marble shafts and stiff leaf capitals.

Three 13th-century stepped lancets light the west window of the south aisle, with a square turret in the angle with the porch. A massive four-stage tower features diagonal buttresses and a southwest octagonal stair turret with a small door to the base. The two-centred west doorway has a tracery-panelled door and strap hinges. A four-centred Perpendicular second-stage window sits beneath a 19th-century niche with side pinnacles and a crocketed ogee hood, containing a seated figure of Bishop Carpenter. Two-light louvred windows with an elongated quatrefoil light the third stage, which also carries clocks. Gargoyles project from the drip. A crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles crowns the tower, with a spirelet to the stair turret featuring open cross windows and a fine 19th-century openwork top.

Interior

A 19th-century reredos dominates the chancel, with a central wide crocketed ogee arch showing a tableau of the Last Supper, flanked by ogee-arched panels with crocketed pinnacles between. Two pointed arches to the north chapel rest on piers with four attached shafts with small moulded capitals, while three taller arches serve the south chapel, which has a door and rood loft openings beside the aisle arch. Shallow roofing with mouchettes above tie beams is supported on head corbels.

The three-bay nave has a north arcade with round piers, moulded capitals and chamfered arches, with a doorway and steps up to the pulpit at the east end. The wider-spaced south arcade has thicker piers with small foliage decorations to the capitals. The walls west of the arcade are blank, leading to a tall pointed west arch on piers with steps down to the west door. Clerestory windows have splayed reveals and segmental hoodmoulds, with corbel heads to wall posts and tie-beam roof.

The north aisle arch sits on octagonal capitals with foliate corbels. Beneath it is a door to the stair turret with openings above to the rood loft. The wide south aisle contains a shallow piscina and three sedilia with deeply moulded arches, capitals and attached shafts.

Fittings

A 15th-century timber altar rail features open cusped ogee arches. A bishop's chair with ribbed back, a bound chest with lock and two padlocks, and a plain chest inscribed as a gift from Jeremy Innys dated 1759 are present. A brass lectern with barleysugar stand and four supports, a large 19th-century pulpit with marble shafts, a 19th-century font octagonal on marble shafts, and poppy-head pews complete the furnishings.

Memorials

Wall memorials include a painted aedicule of circa 1610 containing a kneeling man with shield above; a marble wall tablet to Martha Jacobs died 1616, an aedicule with panelled pilasters, triglyph frieze and urn on top; a wall memorial to William Jeffries died 1752, a pedimented panel beneath an obelisk with rocaille decoration; and a marble wall memorial to James Morgan died 1780 with fluted pilasters and shield on top.

Historical Context

A Benedictine monastery existed in Westbury, possibly as early as AD 720, becoming the earliest reformed house in England in 962. The south chapel is known as Canynge's after William Canynge, the great Bristol merchant who served as Dean of Westbury from 1469 to 1474. Although the interior was restored in the 19th century, the exterior remains in good condition. The church forms an important architectural group with Westbury College, its benefactor being associated with the building of the chancel and north chapel.