Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity

Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity

This church, built in 1875-6, is a Roman Catholic building formerly in Anglican use, designed in the Gothic Revival style by Benjamin Ferrey.

The church is constructed of Portland ashlar with dressings of Bath stone or Hamstone, covered by a pitched slate roof. A tall lateral stack rises on the north side at the junction between the nave and chancel, and a bell gablet projects from the west gable end. The nave and chancel are of equal height, divided only by a stone gable coping, while the roof over the north side of the nave and north aisle forms a catslide.

The plan is oriented west to east and comprises a broad nave with flanking aisles, a Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle, a chancel, and a transeptal vestry to the north. The south aisle is narrow and does not extend the full length of the nave.

The west end features a pointed arch entrance with a single roll moulding and hollow chamfer, with the hoodmould breaking upwards into a large four-light window of Early English tracery. The south elevation, facing the road, has five two-light pointed arch windows with hoodmoulds and tracery: one at the western end of the nave and four along the south aisle. Beneath the nave window is a Portland stone plaque carved with a winged angel in relief, commemorating parishioners and church members who died in the First World War. The south aisle's west end contains a doorway in a chamfered pointed arch surround with hoodmould, and above it an oculus with three tangential tracery circles and hoodmould. The south aisle's east end has a matching oculus and a two-light pointed arch window with hoodmould. The north side features four windows with segmental heads, hollow chamfers, and Early English tracery in the north aisle: one of three lights and three of two lights. The north aisle's west end has a pointed-arch window with hoodmould, and the vestry has two similar windows, one on the west elevation and one on the north, plus a rounded-headed doorway on the vestry's west side. The north wall of the chancel contains a single lancet with Early English tracery, while the east end has a three-light window of similar tracery. The east end sits very close to an adjacent house.

The interior is painted white with exposed stone detailing. The four-bay nave has a north arcade of four pointed arches and two to the south, all carried on alternating octagonal and round piers with capitals. At the west end are a pair of doors set in a carved decorative door case with linenfold panelling to the lower wall; further panelling extends along the south aisle and Lady Chapel. Simple bench seating is provided throughout. The nave roof has close-coupled rafters and arch-braced principals resting on stone corbels. The chancel arch features short detached shafts of Purbeck marble rising from elaborate corbels with foliate carving. The free-standing onyx marble altar is mounted on a single step and was brought from the original Roman Catholic parish church of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, as were the Stations of the Cross. Painted panelling surrounds the sanctuary, and the roof is barrel vaulted with gilded bosses. The organ and sacristy occupy the north side of the chancel. The church also contains a number of monuments from the late 18th to mid-19th centuries, transferred from the previous Holy Trinity Church.

Notable fixtures include a good range of stained glass, with work by Charles Eamer Kempe in the south aisle, a late 19th-century alabaster pulpit with carved relief figure to the front panel resting on a stone base, an octagonal font with oval marble bowl supported on clustered marble columns, and a brass eagle lectern. The sanctuary contains a carved and gilded timber reredos attributed to Kempe or a contemporary artist, installed in 1897.