Former Church Of The Holy Trinity

Former Church of the Holy Trinity

This is a Grade II listed building designed by the celebrated architect George Gilbert Scott in partnership with William Bonython Moffatt, built in 1841–2. The chancel was rebuilt by Edward Doran Webb in 1908.

The church is constructed of greensand ashlar with blue slate roofs and follows an Early English style of around 1300. It comprises a five-bay nave with a west tower, north and south aisles of three bays with porches to the west, and transepts to the east. The original shallow one-bay chancel was lengthened in 1908. The building originally featured galleries at the west end and over both aisles and transepts, with gallery stairs contained within the west porches.

Exterior Features

The church is characterised throughout by chamfered plinths, moulded stringcourses, and two-stage buttresses with weathered offsets and gabled tops. Windows are mostly uncusped lancets, single or grouped, with hoodmoulds and blocked label stops. Below the eaves of both aisles and clerestory run broad raised bands with regular dentil blocks set below in the manner of a corbel table. The gables have shaped kneelers and pointed copings with a fat roll-moulding at the apex.

The dominant feature is the tall, stately west tower of four stages, with a prominent polygonal stair turret at the north-west that rises above the parapet with a large spirelet—a feature characteristic of Bristol and North Somerset towers. The turret displays blind arcading at two stages. The other angles carry smaller pinnacles with weathered caps, and the embattled parapet sits above a double corbel table. Each face of the bell stage contains one large opening with a double chamfered head, a quatrefoil in plate tracery, and two louvred lights. The stage below is short and has a cusped oculus in each face. Single lancets appear north and south, with paired lancets to the west, above a west door with one order of colonnettes. The aisles have paired lancets between buttresses; the clerestory features single lancets with flat pilaster strips instead of buttresses dividing the bays. The transepts have gabled ends with triple lancets above arched entrances. The chancel retains the original single lancet on each side wall, and the three-light east window, added by E. Doran Webb in 1908, displays reticulated tracery in the Decorated style. Several flat-headed exit doors were cut into the chancel walls in 1980–2.

Interior

The nave has double-chamfered arcades on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The interior was comprehensively remodelled in 1980–2 and divided with an upper floor. All windows have been reglazed with clear plate glass.

Setting and Subsidiary Features

The church sits in a spacious churchyard with walks of pollarded limes. Several good 18th-century chest tombs are present, together with a medieval churchyard cross with chamfered plinth on two steps; the cross finial is modern.

Historical Context

The site lies approximately 200 feet north of the Benedictine convent church of Shaftesbury Abbey, one of the wealthiest monastic foundations in southern England. From the Reformation, the churches of Holy Trinity and St Peter nearby were held as one living. Maps from 1615 and 1799 depict Holy Trinity as an aisled church with a porch and west tower. The building was completely rebuilt on the same site in 1841–2. The church became redundant on 30 September 1977, and the congregation transferred to St Peter's church. By 13 October 1980, the Trinity Centre Trust had taken ownership of the building. Conversion was completed by 1982, and the structure now functions as a Day Centre, Scouts headquarters, workshops and offices.

Architectural and Historical Significance

George Gilbert Scott (1811–78) began his practice in the mid-1830s and became the most successful church architect of his era, being knighted in 1872. His new churches are characterised by harmonious design, frequently in the style of the late 13th or early 14th century. Between 1835 and 1844, Scott was in partnership with William Bonython Moffatt (1812–87), a pupil of James Edmeston under whom Scott also trained. Moffatt designed buildings independently but brought little to the partnership, which dissolved in 1844. Edward Doran Webb (1843–1913) was a competent though rarely innovative Salisbury architect who designed many churches in Wiltshire, Dorset and beyond, specialising particularly in Roman Catholic commissions.